Now Korean Regulators Probing Intel

In its quarterly 10Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Intel on Monday said the Korean government is now probing its market practices. Specifically, Intel reports that:

In June 2005, Intel received an inquiry from the Korea Fair Trade Commission requesting documents from Intel&'s Korean subsidiary related to marketing and rebate programs Intel entered into with Korean PC manufacturers. Intel is cooperating with these agencies in their investigations and expects that these matters will be acceptably resolved.

The Korean investigation began at roughly the same time Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD filed its lawsuit against Intel in U.S. District Court in Delaware. The chip giant, which is headquartered down the road from AMD in Santa Clara, Calif., denies any wrongdoing. It has until Sept. 6 to file its formal response to AMD's federal lawsuit in Delaware.

Among other things, AMD claims Intel has unfairly used its market power to offer unfair rebates and incentives to PC makers, and has tried to push distributors into favoring Intel products over AMD products.

The Korean investigation comes on the heels of probes by Japanese and European officials.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission filed charges against Intel earlier this year, and the European Commission has also launched its own probe into Intel. In addition, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz said earlier this year that his company has been approached by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding Intel, although an AMD spokeswoman downplayed any FTC angle to the saga.