In a complaint filed Friday, actually an amendment of a Sun suit filed earlier this year, is the latest to be related to the long-running investigations against the DRAM industry, kicked off by the US Department of Justice in 2002.
Several companies named in the suit have already agreed to pay fines as a result of the price-fixing probes, and executives from at least two companies will serve prison sentences.
The Sun-Unisys complaint names Hynix, Mosel Vitelic, Nanya Technology, Winbond Electronics, Elpida Memory, Mitsubishi Electric and Infineon Technologies, and their respective US subsidiaries. While Samsung and Micron are named as co-conspirators, they are not named as defendants.
During the conspiracy, DRAM suppliers conspired to control production capacity, raise prices or slow their decline, allocate customers, and otherwise unlawfully overcharge their DRAM customers, the plaintiffs allege.
The complaint alleges that between 1996 and 2002 the DRAM makers secretly conspired to keep memory prices high by limiting production and colluding on prices.
One 1998 email cited in the complaint talks of walking the fine line between a pleasant shortage and a disastrous over-supply. This memo was circulated among memory makers, the complaint says.
Most of the companies listed in the suit have admitted participation in the scheme to one extent or another. With that in mind, it seems the most likely outcome of this latest suit will be out-of-court settlements.
Infineon was the first to fall, agreeing in September 2004 to plead guilty to price fixing in the US. Hynix pleaded guilty to similar charges six months later. Six months after that Samsung made a similar plea deal with the DoJ. Elpida entered its plea this January.
Infineon paid a $160m fine for its sins, while Samsung handed over $300m, the second-largest antitrust fine in US history. Hynix paid $185m.
