Asustek Computer has lodged a formal complaint with Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) against Gigabyte Technology alleging the competitor made false accusations that Asustek has attempted to misrepresent the performance of its EPU energy saving technology and the quality of its products. In addition Asustek also started legal proceedings accusing Gigabyte of "defamatory acts."
Asustek reported to the FTC on May 22 that Gigabyte attempted to harm the company's reputation by making, what it maintains, false accusations that Asustek has been misrepresenting or exaggerating the capabilities of its EPU technology.
During a company-sponsored media event earlier this month, Gigabyte delivered a presentation in which it compared its own DES technology against EPU and also questioned the validity of some of the claims and performance figures Asustek has published. Asustek has reacted to this presentation by saying that Gigabyte does not have a full understanding of its engineering design and methods and so the accusations made were false.
In addition, Asustek stated that during the same event Gigabyte presented attendees with a photograph of a piece of hardware showing damaged capacitors. According to Asustek, Gigabyte used the image to question the validity of Asustek's marketing claims that it uses "100% all high-quality conductive polymer capacitors." However, according to Asustek this was misrepresentation and deformation as the product in the image was actually manufactured by another vendor.
While the act of initiating formal proceedings marks the first step towards resolving the dispute, any decision is going to be a long time coming. In the meantime the majority of the dispute will be fought out through the companies' marketing departments. To quote one Gigabyte spokesperson, "Computex 2008 is going to be interesting."
With relations between the two companies so sour, it is interesting to remember that less than two years ago the pair was planning to join forces to sell motherboards and graphics cards under the Gigabyte United brand.
Article translated by Ricky Morris
