The US Department of Justice launched an investigation into DRAM price fixing in 2002, concerned over dramatic price rises in the market that took place in 2001.
The investigation targeted DRAM maker Micron along with Winbond Electronics and Naya Technologies of Taiwan, Elpida Memory of Japan (a joint venture between NEC and Hitachi), Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea and Infineon Technologies of Germany.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, the investigation may soon be over, and criminal charges are expected to be brought against some, as yet unnamed, companies.
The chipmakers' case has not been aided by documents released in conjunction with a Federal Trade Commission ruling in an anti-trust case against chip designer Rambus last week.
The Rambus investigation has been rumbling on since 2002 when the FTC charged the company with violating federal antitrust laws, alleging that the chip designer deliberately engaged in a pattern of anti-competitive acts and practices that served to deceive an industry-wide standard-setting organisation, resulting in adverse effects on competition and consumers.
Last week the FTC's Chief Administrative Law Judge Stephen McGuire ruled that the allegations had not been proved, and dismissed the case. In the course of his decision he released details of an e-mail that may have a bearing on the Department of Justice investigation into price fixing.
According to CNET News, the decision said:
"Subsequently, in a November 26, 2001, e-mail, a Micron manager named Kathy Radford described the efforts of Infineon and Samsung to raise DDR prices and stated that Micron intended to try to raise its prices to all of the OEM customers."
The decision continued:
"Radford then reported that '(t)he consensus from all suppliers is that if Micron makes the move, all of them will do the same and make it stick.' Prices did, in fact, increase in the months after Radford's e-mail."
In an e-mail to CNET News on Tuesday a spokesman for Micron confirmed that the EU is also investigating possible price fixing in the memory chip market in 2001, and has been doing so since April 2003.