News

Infineon Technologies Admits to Price Fixing

September 15, 2004 by Jeff Shepard

Infineon Technologies AG (Germany) has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $160 million fine for participating in an international conspiracy to fix prices in the DRAM market sold to certain computer and server manufacturers, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Under the plea agreement, which must be approved by the court, Infineon has agreed to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation of other DRAM makers.

While the DOJ didn't name the other DRAM makers under investigation, a number of DRAM makers, including Samsung, Hynix and Micron, are all currently named as defendants in antitrust litigation in US district court. The DOJ specifically charged Infineon with carrying out the conspiracy by participating in meetings, conversations and communications in the United States and elsewhere with competitors to discuss the prices of DRAM to be sold to certain customers; agreeing to charge prices of DRAM at certain levels to be sold to certain customers; issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached; and exchanging information on sales of DRAM to certain customers to monitor and adhere to the agreed-upon prices.

The computer makers directly affected by the price-fixing conspiracy were Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, IBM and Gateway, according to the DOJ.

Infineon reported that the matter between it and the DOJ has been fully resolved, as far as its price-fixing investigation. The $160 million fine will be paid in equal installments through 2009. Infineon also said that it had been in contact with its OEM customers affected by the price fixing and that it has achieved or is in the process of achieving settlements with all of these customers.