AMD Supports United Kingdom Move to Strengthen Competition in Technology Procurement

AMD Supports United Kingdom Move to Strengthen Competition in Technology Procurement

AMD welcomes the publication of an EU Procurement Guidance document by the United Kingdom’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) intended to help contracting authorities develop tender documents that comply with EU rules on non-discrimination in public procurement (e.g. EU directive .93/36). This publication follows similar documents already issued by the French, Italian, Swedish, German, Belgian, Japanese and U.S governments.

“We fully support the UK initiative to bring more competition into technology procurement. The illegal use of either brand or specific product names reduces market competition, slows down the pace of innovation and may unnecessarily cost taxpayers money,” said Giuliano Meroni, corporate vice president, Sales and Marketing, for Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Fair and open competition in tenders for the technology industry directly benefits taxpayers and governments, ensuring authorities base their procurement decisions on getting the best technology at the best price.”

Due to a “number of recent EU infraction cases”, the OGC document stipulates specific rules for the tendering of computer hardware. These rules demand that the “requirements for microprocessors must exclude any reference to brands (e.g., Intel, AMD), manufacturer-specific processor architectures, trademarks, technology-types or other potentially discriminatory descriptors.” Additionally, specifications must “exclude any reference to minimum processor clock-speeds” as well as a minimum Front Side Bus speed or minimum cache memory size as “such specifications do not directly relate to performance.”

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