Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron sued in US over alleged DRAM supply manipulation
Follow UsA class action lawsuit accuses Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron of deliberately restricting DRAM supply to inflate memory prices
Consumers and small businesses are seeking damages for inflated prices paid on products containing DRAM
Samsung pleaded guilty and paid a $300 million fine for DRAM price-fixing in a separate US case back in 2005
A group of consumers and small businesses has sued Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology, accusing them of intentionally restricting DRAM memory supply to drive up prices. The case was filed on 25 June in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, case number 3:26-cv-06345. It names Samsung Electronics, Samsung Semiconductor, SK Hynix Inc., SK Hynix America and Micron Technology as defendants. According to WCCFTech, Judge Noel Wise is presiding.
SurveyThe plaintiffs are individual consumers Marc Garciaguirre, Tyree Burnett Jr., Joseph Flores, Rodolfo Gurrola Jr., Brook Barclift, Theo Papulis, Jeff Ramirez Ochoa, Paul Henning, Evan Feliciano, Brian Graber, Joseph Danson, John Prineas, Thomas Yu and Donald Barber, plus businesses Troy’s Computers LLC, JB Tech Solutions LLC and Wastenotime Developments Performance Fabrications. They are represented by Bathaee Dunne LLP and want to represent a wider class of buyers who paid inflated prices for DRAM-based products and demand a jury trial.
The lawsuit claims the three companies, the world’s dominant DRAM makers, coordinated to limit supply while demand was rising, fuelling what’s been called the “RAMpocalypse,” the sharp spike in memory prices that has hit phones, laptops and other electronics over the past year.
This isn’t new territory for Samsung. In 2005, the US Department of Justice fined the company $300 million after it pleaded guilty to fixing DRAM prices between 1999 and 2002, in a case that also hit Dell, Compaq, HP, Apple, IBM and Gateway, and implicated Micron, Hynix, Infineon and Elpida too.
This time, AI companies are buying memory chips at a scale the industry can’t keep up with and the same companies now being sued say they are building new factories to expand supply. Whether deliberate supply restriction also played a role, as the lawsuit claims, is what the case will need to prove.
Memory makers have also been locking in multi-year supply deals with large AI customers, leaving less for the regular consumer market. Prices are expected to keep rising for at least a couple more years regardless of how this case turns out.
