General Electric (GE) is turning its back on its controversial online auction tender process as it embarks upon a review of its European advisers.

GE, one of the world's biggest companies, has launched a review of its European legal panel and hopes to complete the process by the end of the summer. But the company will not be using the innovative eBay-style auction method in which firms attempt to outbid each other by lowering fee rates in real time to secure panel work.

GE European general counsel Mark Elborne told Legal Week: "We are not proposing to use the e-tendering process at this point as we are looking to broaden and deepen our relationships with the firms we work with."