The Federal Trade Commission has rejected a bid by Intel Corporation to have Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch disqualified from reviewing the agency’s case against the chip maker on the grounds that he had served as Intel’s primary antitrust counsel in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In an order on the FTC’’s Web site which was first reported in the Wall Street Journal, Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Intel spent “many months” trying to convince Rosch to vote against bringing the case against Intel without mentioning the potential conflict of interest.
Intel argued that Rosch should recuse himself on the case because he represented Intel during a previous investigation into the company that the FTC opened in 1991. Before coming to the FTC in 2006, Rosch was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins in San Francisco.
The FTC filed an administrative law suit against Intel last Dec. 16, accusing the company of using its dominance in the microprocessor market to illegally induce its customers to spurn competing products.
The ”matters upon which Commissioner Rosch previously advised Intel are so distant in time—and concern technology, allegations, and business relationships that are so dissimilar to those relevant to the present matter,” Leibowitz said.
Another commissioner, William Kovacic is recused on the case because his wife’s law firm represents Nvidia, an Intel competitor that has lobbied the FTC to file suit against the chip giant.
In a separate statement, Rosch said he spent hundreds of hours considering the case and met with Intel officials three times, including a Dec. 3 meeting wherein he told Intel’s general counsel he had “tentatively formed a “reason to believe” that a complaint should issue,” without the company mentioning it might want him recused from the review.
Intel filed its motion to have Rosch disqualified hours before the Commission voted to file suit against the company.
Intel’s general counsel, A. Douglas Melamed spoke to Chairman Leibowitz several hours before Intel sought the recusal, Rosch said, without mentioning the motion.
INVENTORS – DO NOT TRUST INTEL
I invented a CPU cooler – 3 times better than best – better than water. Intel have major CPU cooling problems – “Intel’s microprocessors were generating so much heat that they were melting” (iht.com) – try to talk to them – they send my communications to my competitor & will not talk to me.
Winners of major ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ awardS!!
Huh!!!!
When did RICO get repealed?
INVENTORS – DO NOT TRUST INTEL!!!!