Plaintiffs allege chipmakers exploited oligopoly to reap unfair profits

Samsung Electronics. [Reuters]
Samsung Electronics. [Reuters]

A group of US consumers has filed a class-action lawsuit against memory chip makers Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron, alleging the companies artificially inflated prices and caused financial harm to buyers.

According to US technology outlet WccFTech, 14 American consumers and three small PC assembly and retail businesses filed the suit Sunday (local time) in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking damages from the three companies.

The plaintiffs said the companies, which together hold roughly 90 percent of the global memory chip market, abused their oligopoly position by deliberately engineering supply shortages to generate unfair profits — in effect coordinating prices. They also said the resulting rise in memory chip prices drove up the cost of finished consumer electronics such as MacBooks and iPads, directly harming buyers.

The plaintiffs also cited past price-fixing cases involving Samsung Electronics and its peers in their complaint.

Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor — the predecessor of SK hynix — were each fined by the US Department of Justice for colluding to fix DRAM prices in the American market between 1999 and 2002. Samsung Electronics was fined $300 million and Hynix Semiconductor $185 million.

Computer companies in the United States filed separate damages suits in connection with the case, and both companies also paid additional compensation to consumers outside the country.


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