South Korean antitrust authorities are investigating the marketing and rebate practices of Intel Corp, the world's top chip maker, in the latest of a series of probes outside the United States into its market influence.
South Korea's probe, disclosed in an Intel regulatory filing on Monday, follows similar investigations by Japan and the European Union, and highlights the growing enmity between Intel and smaller rival Advanced Micro who have sparred over similar issues in the past two decades.
"The probe is in line with similar investigations in Japan and the European Union," a spokesman at South Korea's Fair Trade Commission, which enforces competition laws and decides antitrust cases, said by telephone on Tuesday. The commission has not received any complaint against Intel but began the probe based on its own judgement, following Japan's case, he said.
"We're investigating whether Intel is unfairly using its dominant position in the market," he said.
"We don't have evidences of Intel's unfair marketing yet. We will decide whether there is any through the investigation."
The commission has already conducted preliminary investigations into five South Korean PC makers supplied by Intel for the case and asked Intel to provide related documents by the end of August, he said.
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