Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Accused of Artificially Inflating RAM Prices

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the world's largest memory manufacturers — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — in a California federal court. The companies are accused of price collusion and deliberately restricting the supply of RAM to maintain high market prices.

The lawsuit was registered on June 25. According to its contents, the manufacturers deliberately reduced the production of DDR3 and DDR4 memory modules, which are widely used in personal computers, game consoles, and other consumer electronics. Instead, the companies allegedly focused their production capacities on manufacturing more profitable HBM memory, primarily intended for AI accelerators and data centers.

The plaintiffs claim that this strategy led to an artificial shortage of traditional DRAM, forcing consumers to pay “super-competitive” prices for devices containing RAM. According to the authors of the lawsuit, buyers were the main victims, while the manufacturers' profits significantly increased.

The document also notes that in a free market, price increases usually attract new manufacturers who increase supply. However, this did not happen with DRAM, as almost the entire global market is controlled by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, and creating new modern production facilities requires huge investments and many years of work.

This is far from the first time Samsung and SK Hynix have faced similar accusations. In 2005, both companies pleaded guilty in a case of conspiracy to fix DRAM prices. At that time, the US Department of Justice fined SK Hynix $185 million and Samsung $300 million. At the time, Samsung's fine was the second-largest criminal antitrust penalty in US history. Micron, the only American company among the market participants, avoided charges because, as reported, it cooperated with the investigation.

The authors of the new class-action lawsuit also recall the investigation by Chinese authorities concerning the activities of Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron between 2016 and 2018. At that time, the companies were also suspected of concerted actions that led to a sharp increase in RAM prices.