US chipmaker Intel Corporation has confirmed that it was raided by the European Commission and that it is co-operating fully, but said its business practices are both fair and lawful.
Intel employs over 5,000 people in its Irish operations in Leixlip. The Irish offices were not raided as the operations here concentrate on manufacturing and the European offices raided deal with sales and marketing.
'I can confirm that EU officials conducted searches at several Intel offices in Europe on July 12 as part of its ongoing investigation into Intel's business practices,' Intel spokesman Chuck Malloy said from company headquarters in California.
'As is our normal practice we are fully cooperating with authorites from the EU. Beyond that we can't comment on the specifics of the searches but we believe our business practices are both fair and lawful,' he said.
Today's moves are part of an ongoing investigation by the Competition Commission similar to that carried out by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, which warned the company earlier this year about its policies on offering rebates to computer companies.
