Class-action suit accuses Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron of DRAM price-fixing

A class-action lawsuit filed in the US district court of Northern California accuses Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of "concerted anticompetitive behavior by three Oligopolists" in the DRAM market. The complaint was brought by a proposed class of businesses and individual consumers.

It alleges that since 2022 the three manufacturers have "fixed supply and prices for DRAM, engaging in conduct that makes no economic sense absent collusion" and that conventional DRAM prices rose approximately 700% in a four-year period. The suit says none of the three used the others’ retreat to expand and that "all three pulled back together." According to the complaint, the companies simultaneously cut production, coordinated a pivot to High Bandwidth Memory and exit from DDR3 and DDR4, and "otherwise decreased and locked up conventional DRAM supply while prices charged up with mind-blowing scale and rapidity." It cites Micron’s shuttering of its consumer sub-brand Crucial "at the most profitable price point in its history" as an example.

United States, Northern California

dram, samsung, sk hynix, micron, price fixing, class action, antitrust, ddr4, ddr3, hbm