Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix are facing another class-action lawsuit over alleged DRAM memory price-fixing. We say “another” because the same law firm, Hagens Berman, sued these companies in 2002 and 2018, ending in a $345 million fine in the first case, while the second case was dismissed.
“An investigation has found that a group of the largest electronics manufacturers producing Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) may have collectively agreed to raise the price of memory used in cell phones and computers between 2016 and 2017, illegally driving up the price paid by consumers,” the law firm said in 2018.
“Those who unknowingly paid high prices for their computers and mobile devices deserve compensation for the greed and misconduct of these large electronics companies,” they continued.
It won’t be easy to prove
This new lawsuit will be anything but easy for Hagens Berman to prove, however, as it comes at a time when there is a huge demand for DRAM memory and prices are steadily rising, presumably because demand is outstripping supply.
At the moment, it’s unclear what changes the company has made to its lawsuit from the one that was dismissed in 2018, but according to BusinessKorea, the company filed a follow-up lawsuit in the same U.S. District Court on May 3, showing that it’s not ready to give up on the case just yet.
“The Korean semiconductor industry disagrees with the U.S. law firm’s claim. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron accounted for 42.1%, 29.5%, and 23% of the global DRAM market, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2020. Their combined market share was well over 94%. However, this is the result of the logic of the market economy, which is based on fair competition, and there was no expediency,” according to market research firm TrendForce.
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