DRAM Price Fixing Scandal

DRAM price fixing scandal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In 2002, the United States Department of Justice, under the Sherman Antitrust Act, began a probe into the activities of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) manufacturers in response to class action lawsuits by US computer makers, including Dell and Gateway, that inflated DRAM pricing was causing lost profits and hindering their effectiveness in the marketplace.[1][2] To date, five manufacturers have pleaded guilty to their involvement in an international price-fixing conspiracy between July 1, 1998, and June 15, 2002, including Hynix, Infineon, Micron Technology, Samsung, and Elpida.[3] 2002–2005 "In December 2003, the Department charged Alfred F. 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] On 20 October 2004, Infineon also pleaded guilty. The company was fined $160 million for its involvement, then the third largest antitrust fine in US history. In April 2005, Hynix Semiconductor was fined $185 million after its admins guilt. In October 2005, Samsung entered a guilty plea in connection with the cartel.[4] On 5 April 2006, Sun Woo Lee, Senior Manager of DRAM at Samsung Electronics, entered into a plea bargain with the US Government for his involvement in the price fixing conspiracy.[5] Following the plea agreement he was sentenced to 8 months in prison and fined US$250,000.[6] Lee was subsequently promoted to President of Samsung Germany in 2009, and then President of Samsung Europe in 2014. On 19 May, 2010, European antitrust regulators also fined nine semiconductor manufacturers more than €331 million for the cartel that operated back in 2002. The companies fined are Samsung Electronics, Infineon, Hynix Semiconductor, Elpida Memory, NEC Electronics, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric and Nanya Technology. Micron Technology received immunity for blowing the whistle on the cartel and will not be fined for its involvement.[7]

A screenshot of a Wikipedia article about the DRAM price-fixing scandal, showing a DRAM memory module and paragraphs describing the cartel, guilty pleas, and fines. The joke is the deadpan use of a serious historical article to suggest that history is repeating itself, usually as a reaction to recurring corporate scandals or familiar patterns of wrongdoing. EN: A screenshot of a Wikipedia article about the DRAM price-fixing scandal, showing a DRAM memory module and paragraphs describing the cartel, guilty pleas, and fines. The joke is the deadpan use of a serious historical article to suggest that history is repeating itself, usually as a reaction to recurring corporate scandals or familiar patterns of wrongdoing.

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