Attorney General George Jepsen announced on Monday a $175,000 settlement with four manufacturers of dynamic random access memory over allegations they conspired to illegally fix and inflate prices.
Elpida of Tokyo, Hynix Semiconductor Inc. of South Korea, Infineon Technologies AG of Germany and Micron Technology, Inc. of Boise, Idaho did not admit liability in the case but agreed to pay $43,750 each to resolve the claims under the Connecticut Antitrust Act.
These manufacturers – along with Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. – controlled 70 percent of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, in the United States between 1998 and 2002, when all five allegedly conspired to fix prices for the product packaged for personal computers, servers, workstations and electronic devices. These price increases were passed onto consumers.
Following a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation, the manufacturers were charged with coordinating prices they charged and reducing supply in order to artificially raise prices. Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, Elpida and 12 individuals have paid fines in excess of $730 million. Micro received amnesty from DOJ for cooperating with the investigation.
Connecticut already reached a similar settlement against Samsung and Winbond Electronics Corp. in 2007 as part of a larger multistate investigation, and the state is awaiting its share of that $10 million settlement.
