RSSSamsung Guilty of Memory Price Fixing
By Ed Oswald | Published October 14, 2005, 10:15 AM
Samsung has plead guilty to charges of price fixing computer memory and will pay a $300 million fine to settle the case, the U.S. Department of Justice said late Thursday.
The decision revolves around the company's actions from 1999 to 2002 where it colluded with other memory chipmakers to keep prices artificially high. Memory remained expensive even while the tech industry crumbled, raising eyebrows at the Justice Department and spurring an investigation in 2002.
According to Department antitrust chief Thomas Barnett, it forced at least two computer companies to raise prices on their computers, while others decided to keep prices steady yet include less memory.
"This case demonstrates the need for vigorous antitrust enforcement in high-technology markets, which is one of the most important sectors of the American economy," Barnett said.
Samsung is the third company after Hynix and Infineon Technologies to be indicted and fined by the government. A fourth, Micron Technology, was cooperating with the Justice Department and likely would not be fined.
Thursday's decision marks another legal problem for Samsung. Last Friday, the head of the South Korean Fair Trade Commission said it was looking into investigating the company's deals with Apple to see if any anti-competitive practices took place.
A court in Seoul found two Samsung executives guilty this month of giving a favorable rate on company bonds to children of Lee Keun-hee, chairman of Samsung. Previous to that, the chairman was asked to appear at a Korean government inquiry into the dissolution of its automobile unit.
Samsung did not respond directly to the charges, however said in a statement that it "strongly supports fair competition."
ok for starters there is always an alternative for sony for intstans there are generic brands that are compatable with all tehr hardware. not sure for ipod but if you look further then your nose you mind find out. just like with gasoline there are alternatives with this whole ram thing is stupid i mean are they the only manufacture of ram inthe world the justice department is doing it soly for the prestige.
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|opps double post
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|this made me laugh when I seen this on TV,
WHAT ABOUT GASOLINE PEOPLE???????????
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|So who gets the 300 mil in fine money?lol I havent read anything about restitution to the consumers!
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|First off, proprietary batteries are the biggest scam to ever come down the line for portable electronics. I laugh when I see ignorant consumers buying Ipods by the dozens when Creative Labs and Samsung both make excellent Mp3 players that don't require special batteries. Mine takes AAA I can get 4 energizer rechargeables at Target for 10 bucks. How much is an IPOD battery 20-40? If any of the laptop manufacturers were decent they'd design their laptops to run on a standardized battery something about the size of 8 AA batteries taped together. They could make the bay either support a single battery or 8 AAs in the same hole.
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|Umm... I think you made this post on the wrong story. As far as I know, Samsung doesn't make laptop batteries.
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|Interesting ... had no idea that Samsung were looking into automobiles...
If proof is found that there was in fact dishonest business practices in the Samsung / Apple deal, it will be interesting to see Apple receive some bad publicity - although, I would expect Apple to be smarter than to involve themselves in shady commodity acquisitions. There's enough of that going around with Intel ... who they are getting cozy in bed with soon with their Palladium Technology Intel Processor Macs...
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|All me need now, is for other big companies to get prosecuted. Sony and Apple for artificial replacement batterys. £200 for a replacement laptop battery? (This is a current model Sony BTW, so bear in mind if thinking about a Vaio)
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|You brought up a good point even if its unrelated to memory. Dell is also very expensive when it comes to their laptop batteries (for seemingly no reason). There are very reputable sellers on eBay selling the exact same batteries brand new like 80% cheaper... I don't know how they do this, but I have purchased one and I have had no problem. Not a refurb either. There is nothing wrong with a company making an honest profit, the keyword is honest.
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|Tisk tisk tisk. Bad Samsung! Gotta love their cell-phones, though...
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