The Japanese unit of Intel Corp, the world's biggest chip maker, declined comment on Saturday on media reports that it would receive a warning from Japan's antitrust regulators about its business practices. The daily Asahi Shimbun said on Saturday that Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) believed that Intel's Japanese unit may have violated antitrust laws, and was set to issue a warning.
"We cannot comment on articles based on speculation," Intel spokesman Masatoshi Mizuno told Reuters, adding: "We will continue to co-operate with the investigation."
In April, the FTC raided three Intel offices as part of a probe into possible antitrust violations, stirring up decade-old allegations from competitors that Intel's business practices are unfairly aggressive.
Asahi said the FTC suspected Intel had tried to shut out competitors from the Japanese market by offering rebates to computer makers who agreed either not to buy or to limit their purchases of chips made by Intel's rivals, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Asahi said Intel had made the offer to several Japanese computer manufacturers.
Kyodo news agency said that Intel had told the FTC that it has not violated the law.
If the FTC were to issue the warning against Intel, it would be the second such action against the giants in the computer industry following a similar warning against Microsoft Corp last July.
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