Samsung agreed to a $300M fine for price fixing in the DRAM market. “Competitors” Hynix and Infineon have already paid almost $350M in related fines between them. From a cynical perspective, this fines probably pale in comparison to the extra profits the firms may have made. However, several Samsung personnel may face further criminal charges, and details of the settlement will probably require some level of oversight.
Before people interpret this as a call to avoid anything that could possibly be construed as colluding to raise prices, note that the case revolved around emails and meetings where the participants actively engaged in price fixing. This was not simply a matter of intelligent industry pricing, which the volatile memory industry could certainly use.
One Comment
Anonymous
I am reading the The Informant now and it seems ADM did the same thing as Samsung. I am not finished with the book,but how interesting is it that it takes so long to investigate a case like this. So many players, so many liars. Thank you susan moskowitz