A lawsuit has been filed against Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix, accusing them of manipulating the prices of memory chips used in iPhonech and other devices. This was reported by The Korea Times website.
The class-action lawsuit, which was filed on May 3 in San Jose, California, alleges that Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix are working together to dominate the production of memory chips, allowing them to control their price.
According to the lawsuit, its petitioners were victims of anti-competitive practices due to a drop in demand. The lawsuit claims it represents Americans who bought cellphones and computers in 2016 and 2017, a period in which DRAM chip prices rose more than 130% and the companies' profits doubled. A similar lawsuit was already filed in the USA in 2018, but the court dismissed it on the grounds that the plaintiff was unable to prove that the defendant had colluded.
Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix together own almost 100% of the DRAM memory market. According to Trendforce, Samsung's share is 42,1%, Micron's 29,5% and SK Hynix's 23%. “To say that these three chip makers are artificially inflating DRAM chip prices is an overstatement. On the contrary, their prices have shown a decline in the last two years," the company recently wrote in its report.
The lawsuit comes as the world faces a global chip shortage. This situation, caused by the coronavirus pandemic, could result in a shortage of processors, the aforementioned DRAM chips and other memory chips.
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