Nine Chipmakers Fined by EU for Price-Fixing
May 19th, 2010Via: BBC:
Nine chip makers have been fined 331m euros (£283.1m, $404.2m) by European Union regulators for illegally fixing prices.
The companies involved are Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida and Nanya.
A 10th chip maker, Micron, was also part of the price-fixing cartel but escaped a fine in return for alerting the competition authorities.
The chips – DRAMS – are used in popular items such as personal computers.
Samsung received the biggest single fine of 146m euros. The second biggest was 57 million euros, which was levied on Germany’s Infineon.
All the fines were reduced by 10% because the companies cooperated with the probe.
The cartel, in operation between 1998 and 2002, involved a “network of contacts” who shared secret information. They colluded to set prices for DRAM chips sold to major PC makers and server manufacturers, the commission said.
