DRAM Triarchy Faces Class-Action Lawsuit for Price-Fixing and Cartel Behavior
Quick Report
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. alleging that the three leading DRAM manufacturers—Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix—are engaged in price-fixing and causing artificial scarcities to keep computer memory prices high. Consumer DDR5 PC memory saw nearly 700% inflation in price over just one year, caused mainly by DRAM manufacturers allocating production capacity to HBM stacks used by AI compute GPUs and booking orders years into the future, which keeps a large percentage of their manufacturing capacity occupied through 2030.
The lawsuit calls for PC memory manufacturers to restore consumer DRAM production and availability, citing Apple's decision to increase prices across its product line due to escalating memory costs. The lawsuit alleges collusion and cartel-like behavior by the three companies to coordinate pricing, and it cites evidence of such activity in the past—specifically in 2000, when the U.S. Department of Justice fined these companies hundreds of millions of dollars and pursued prison sentences for several executives. The manufacturers argue that the price increases stem from legitimate demand spikes from AI companies rather than coordinated price-fixing, but the lawsuit seeks to challenge this defense through documented production allocation patterns.
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