By Anna McLauchlin - 20th April 2004
Germany and Italy are both under EU investigation over tenders for computers which specify the use of Intel microchips, the European Commission has confirmed.
"We sent letters of formal notice to Germany and Italy at the end of March", internal market spokesman Jonathan Todd said on Wednesday.
"And we are in touch with a number of other countries including Austria, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland", he added.
EU laws on public procurement ban the use of brand names when issuing public contracts but the commission has received complaints from chip makers that some government contracts require computers with chips made by US company Intel.
And Todd said a requirement specifying Intel chips could lead to governments paying too much for computers.
Intel currently makes around 80 per cent of the world's micro processors but rival AMD has been gradually sneaking market share, although the commission would not confirm that AMD was the source of the complaints.
Sweden has already taken action to scrap the specification in its contracts and Todd said the commission would be "very happy" if other countries followed suit.
Germany and Italy are the only ones to have received formal warning because they were the first countries where the problem was brought to Brussels' attention Todd added.
Both countries now have two months to respond to the commission's request for information on their computer tenders.
Once a formal warning is launched the member states concerned can be hauled before the European Court of Justice if it fails to take action.
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