$300 Million Fine in Computer Chip Conspiracy

Samsung Electronics has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $300 million fine, the second largest criminal antitrust fine in U.S. history, for participating in a price-fixing conspiracy in the dynamic access random memory (DRAM) industry. According to the felony charge, the conspiracy directly affected a number of computer manufacturers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and IBM.

Samsung is charged with carrying out the conspiracy by:

• Participating in meetings, conversations, and communications with competitors to discuss the prices of DRAM to be sold to certain customers;

• Agreeing, during those meetings, conversations, and communications, to charge prices of DRAM at certain levels to be sold to certain customers;