The European Commission has confirmed it is still investigating chip-maker Intel over the alleged abuse of its market-leadership.

Intel appeared to be cleared earlier this week by the EC's competition unit, over complaints from rival chip manufacturers claiming illegal marketing practices in relation to the 'Intel Inside' campaign.

After conducting an investigation, the EC said it had come to a preliminary conclusion that the complaints against Intel were not founded.

But Intel's UK public relations manager, Graham Palmer, told vnunet.com that the company has yet to see a formal announcement from the EC about the decision.

It then emerged that despite Via Technologies dropping its complaint against Intel, rival company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) still has a petition filed with the EC, which is yet to be ruled on.

An EC spokeswoman told vnunet.com that the competition unit has still to rule on the complaint by AMD, but could not give further details or a timescale for when a decision would be made.

AMD and VIA Technologies, Intel's competitors in Europe, provided information to the EC as part of the first investigation.

In September 2000 the US Federal Trade Commission dropped a similar enquiry into Intel, saying there were no grounds for a prosecution.

AMD was unavailable for comment.