Samsung and Eight Others Fined by EU for Chip-Price Fixing

There have been multiple investigations and charges of price fixing over the years, and while most of them were either dropped or are still not over, some are moving swiftly towards conclusion. Such is the case with the EU's actions against the memory chip cartel made up of Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon and several others. With investigations over, what remains is for individual fines to be established.

This development was brought to the attention of Reuters, on Monday, by “two people familiar with the situation,” one of whom stated that, “A decision on fines is expected on Wednesday.” This will be the first decision under the new settlement procedure that the European Commission introduced in July 2008. The companies already admitted being involved in the conspiracy and will have to pay fines of up to 300 million.

This ruling comes after a similar investigation was dropped by Korean regulators, back in 2007. The parties then suspected of having been involved in illegal price fixing were Samsung Electronics, Micron, Hynix and Infineon. Micron Technology eventually decided to come clean and revealed the larger cartel's existence to the EU Commission. This has reportedly granted it immunity now that penalties are about to be enforced.

The commission, acting as the European Union’s antitrust arm, seems to have succeeded, through this development, in proving that this new method of preventing violations and speed up decision-making is more effective than those of the past. Basically, when an IT player breaks EU legislation, it can be forced to pay up to ten percent of its global turnover in fines. Besides Samsung, Hynix and Infineon, NEC, Elpida, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Nanya will suffer this penance.

“The Commission, the EU antitrust watchdog, has championed the new procedure as a more effective method to deter violations and a speedier decision-making process. The EU executive can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaking EU laws,” Reuters stated.