DRAM price fixing

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In 2002, armed with the Sherman Antitrust Act, the United States Department of Justice began a probe into the activities of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) manufacturers. US computer makers, including Dell and Gateway, claimed that inflated DRAM pricing was causing lost profits and hindering their effectiveness in the marketplace.

To date, five manufacturers have pleaded guilty to their involvement in an international price-fixing conspiracy including Hynix, Infineon, Micron Technology, Samsung, and Elpida.^[1]

"In December 2003, the Department charged Alfred P. Censullo, a Regional Sales Manager for Micron Technology Inc., with obstruction of justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503. Censullo pleaded guilty to the charge and admitted to having withheld and altered documents responsive to a grand jury subpoena served on Micron in June 2002."^[1]

In October of 2004, four executives from Infineon were each sentenced to 4 to 6 months in jail, and fined $250,000. After the four were sentenced, Scott D. Hammond, the Director of Criminal Enforcement for the DoJ Antitrust Division, said, "These four executives are the first to plead guilty to a charge of fixing prices in what is still a very active and far-reaching investigation into antitrust violations in the DRAM industry. We will continue in our efforts to bring to justice other domestic and foreign-based executives who were involved with fixing DRAM prices."

On October 20, 2004, Infineon also pled guilty. The company was fined $160M for its involvement, which at the time was the third largest antitrust fine in US history; Hynix Semiconductor soon took the third position in April 2005 with a $185M criminal penalty after they also pleaded guilty. In October 2005, Samsung entered their guilty plea in connection with the cartel. Their $300M fine was the second largest antitrust fine in US history to that date.