Slashdot Mirror
Samsung To Pay Out $300 Million In Anti-Trust Suit
infernalC writes "Reuters is reporting that Samsung has agreed to plea guilty to charges of price fixing in the memory market in a $300 million settlement." From the article: " Samsung would become the third chip maker to plead guilty in the wide-ranging probe of the prices of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips. The Justice Department has blamed the price-fixing conspiracy for driving up the price of chips used in products ranging from personal computers and servers to cell phones, cameras and game consoles."
So thats why I can never afford anything!
This may enrich the justice department, computer companies, and/or their shareholders, but how does it help me?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Yay! Some GOOD Tech news for a change!
Yay, I have a sig.
I always wonder how much these fines really hurt mega-corps. If they were able to control prices so effectively that they were accused of price-fixing, then the potential profits from that enterprise would be in the billions.
Seems like these fines are just the cost of doing business. I'm sure that $300M is a lot less than their manufacturing charges, or even their advertising expenses.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
I guess the question is, do those of us who have bought memory during this time get money back? My first impression would be no, as this is a criminal suit, not a civil suit. *shrug* If that's the case, I'm sure there will be some opportunistic^K altruistic lawyer who will file one on our behalf for a substantial legal fee^K^K^K^K^K pro bono.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Does this mean Apple is off the hook in Korea? Or are they twice as screwed because they got "fair" prices?
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
...... cause I can't afford the price of gas so that I can drive to the computer store to buy that "affordable" RAM.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
is the lawyers are getting $275mil and then everyone else gets a buck. ;)
I'm not sure what the secret to success is, but the secret to failure lies in trying to please everyone -Bill Cosby
what about those oil and medical companies that drive the prices on the smallest pretext
And I'm sure the consumers will reap the vast portion of that 300M, right? We lost money due to Samsung's fixing, right?
Oh, the Justice department FINED them. Guess it'll be going to prosecute 12-year olds for mp3 swapping or some such good use. Whew, I don't know what I would have done with my $0.12 after the lawyers got paid.
I guess the fines are nice, but I much prefer a nice class action lawsuit when gouged.
The real question here seems to be, "Will Samsung actually change their practices?" In many high-profile anti-trust cases, it seems that the government will fine the company involved, but then the company goes back to the same old tactics of price fixing and other monopolistic behavior. How does the DOJ propose to prevent Samsung from illegal tactics in the future?
You can buy the $300 million memory! Going once... going ...
No sig for now.
Well, in theory, it's supposed to discourage them because fines will continue and increase if they continue such a practice. However, the companies are always able to switch to the next shady business practice.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Being in the unique position of actually working Samsung customer service, I say Mo' Power to Da Peeps. While the company does produce some great products, they are about the most inept, poorly ran company on the face of the planet, at least on the customer service side.
Of course, I'm sure this means my call load will be slammed by people wanting free memory or some crap for this. The nice thing is, I work on the Consumer Electronics section, and not the Semiconducters. Mwahahah.
Who will tell us all how regulation will never solve anything and how the government is evil for trying to break up this scam based on their own outlandish economic theories.
Of course, from my way of thinking, $300 million, or even $485 million if you count the fine against the other chip manufacturer fined so far, is probably just a drop in the bucket compared to the money earned by this scheme. We're lucky to have a regulated economy where the government can do *something* about this at least- but if you think this is going to make those who like money more than people stop trying to destroy the free market, then I've got a bridge or six in Portland to sell you....
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I believe the story here is that Micron Technology organized the price fixing ring, then informed the government(s), thereby obtaining immunity.
This is an interesting strategy for handling competition, but dont' fool yourselves that it means lower prices for anyone.
Lew
"The Constitution, the WHOLE Constitution, and nothing but the CONSTITUTION."
Require them to deliver a large bunch of memory packages (with a 10 year guarantee) for free to anybody that can claim that they have been suffering from the price.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Just did a little bit of searching when I read the article. According to wikipedia, the first motherboards with Rambus were in 1999, and Intel had an agreement with Rambus to use their RAM until 2002. These are the same years quoted in the article. I wonder if there are other players in this game other than Samsung?
What I would like to know is how much money it is estimated they made from price fixing. While $300 million is a lot of money I can't help feeling that they made a lot more than that and therefore over all they have still made a profit. Personally, I think these companies should be fined to the point where they are all but bankrupt. After all it's not like they did it by accident. Perhaps makign the directors personally liable would be another route to take. The threat of a couple of year behind bars would probably make them care about shady practices.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Every time I notice a stall in falling memory prices, I shortly afterwards hear about some massive anticompetitive corporate behavior. The penalties and other inhibitors clearly aren't working: they're accounted as just another cost of doing business, another risk. We need to see actual justice being done, not just cranking up the admission fees to the market exploiters' club.
And when are we going to find out why LCD prices haven't fallen?
--
make install -not war
Does that mean all Battlefield 2 players will be getting $10 in the mail?
Now, can we do something about the other industry cartels?
got standards? --- http://www.w3.org/
"This may enrich the justice department, computer companies, and/or their shareholders, but how does it help me?"
They promise not to do it again.
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/press_releases/200 4/206631.htm
Four Infineon executives were sent to prison (albeit briefly) as part of their plea bargain, also in SF Superior Court.
Does this open the door to a class action lawsuit against Samsun or other chip manufacturers, so that we can recover some of the lost money we paid out in an agreement we though was fair at the time [or at least fair enough to bother buying?].
How is the consumer going to see any of this fine money otherwise?
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Unique? Are you Samsung's only customer support rep? I guess that explains the hellishly long hold times...
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Cartels and price fixing do hurt all of us, yes, but as someone who has used a LOT of RDRAM (and various other flavours from EDO to DDR2) I'll say this: RDRAM was the most stable, least troublesome, and had the lowest RMA rates. They were simply awesome. In an RDRAM machine if a PC didn't boot the LAST thing you looked at was the RAM. AFAIK, 99% of RDRAM modules in the market were made by Samsung. Perhaps the deal with Intel involved tighter quality control than we see in the anybody-make-a-chip-anybody-else-make-a-pcb-and-ge t-your-six-year-old-to-solder them together type major on third modules in the DDR market. DDR really, really sucked in comparision with a return rate of well over 50X that of RDRAM (and we're talking major on major).
So, price fixing does needs to be punished but I'd still pay a few dollars more for the level of reliability the old RDRAM had and for the amount of time it saved me over the years.
And in other news, Zonk and the other editors of Slashdot refused to plead guilty to spelling and grammar fixing in articles they post.
Buy those Nanos while Apple is still getting a good deal on memory. :-)
Think Deeply.
"However, the companies are always able to switch to the next shady business practice."
Like? *gets out pen and paper*
Thankfully, so is my Senator:
Senator Cantwell's letter to President Bush asking for more transparency in the oil market, and an explanation for why oil company profits are so high right now.
include $sig;
1;
Great so am I going to see any of that money? The end users were the victims where so should we get compensated? The article mentioned a fine. That's cool and all but is the government going to pocket that money? That seems a bit sketchy to me if that's the case. Let the corporation do something illegal and fleece the consumers out of their money. A portion of that gets paid out as fine. The loser here are the consumers. The government and the corporations pocket the money. Just my cynical side speaking....
EvilCON - Made Famous by
"That'll teach them to not donate more money to the Republican party coffers!"
How would lower prices have affected Nintendo's N64? If developers could have payed 20 instead of 35$ for each cartridge, would Nintendo be on top?
Microsoft.
Blame the user, not the software.
Why is price fixing illegal? What caused governments to enact laws to prevent this? Is it because it destroys competition? Usually a company acting alone can sell a product for whatever price they want. However if a company creates an alliance with another company to keep their prices within a certain margain it becomes illegal. Can anybody answer this for?
If you can't trust giant corporations, who can you trust? I'm really disappointed in Samsung for being the first corporation to ever screw over their customers. It's almost as if they only care about the money...
That $300 million will go to finance the Bush administration's War on Pornography, which is now one of the top priorities in the Justice Department. I'm sure that money will be used to hire staff and lawyers to draw up vague "obscenity" charges against anyone distributing any form of pornography in the U.S.
As a fiscal conservative, I'm ashamed to say that I voted for Bush and did not see this coming. Laugh if you will, but I honestly thought politicians had given up policing the bedroom. Apparently not. (And don't give me any partisan crap, many Democrats would love to kill off porn as well...)
Inmate1: I charged higher prices than my competitors, so I ended up here for price gouging and profiteering. Inmate2: I charged lower prices, and I'm here for dumping and predatory pricing. Inmate3: I charged exactly the same as my competitors and they put me here for collusion.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Guess I'll have to scrounge up my receipts for the gig of RAM I bought from Crucial several years ago when I had to pay $1 per meg when RAM prices exploded. Maybe I can get reimbursed, but I think it's more likely hell would freeze over first.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
2004 revenue was just under $122 BILLION, with net income of $11.8 BILLION.
So the fine is 2.5% of one year's net income, 0.25% of one year's revenue, and a mere 0.14% of their total assets.
This is incentive against cheating in future? How??
i sold my phone to get better memory and then i remembered i wanted the memory for the phone i just sold.......i was wandering why the guy i sold the phone to was smiling........crap
That was meant to be the sarcastic excuse they might use, not the reality of them sticking us customers with the bill to pay back the fine.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Send all of the company directors and officers to prison. Of course, the prisons are run by our government, and our government is broken too, but it may be a start. See my longer rant in my journal
-- *My* journal is more interesting than *yours*...
At least in the US, taxes are based on profits, so when a fine is paid it is TAX DEDUCTABLE. For a big company in a high bracket, this means that the fine is effectively lowered by 30 to 50 percent. Although in the real world big corporations have so many loop holes and tricks that they pay no actual taxes...
throw some of that money my way. i bought a 1000 dollar Samsung LCD and just over a year later (coincidentally warranties are only 1 year in america) a blob of pixels about an inch in diameter started going bad and being brighter than what they normally should be.
how on earth can a >1000 $ tv be gauranteed to work for only 1 year???
apparecly according to this article, Samsung are scam artists in all sorts of ways. steer clear of their products at all costs!
Micron also recieves quite a few payments from the US government because of foreign memory dumping and is a major backer of increasing H1B.
They two have tried to gobble up memory companies to reduce competition. They bought a fab in Manassas VA which was joint venture between IBM and Toshiba. Within a year, let almost everyone go and just about halted production at the plant with the exception of a few lines. What a way to recoup and spend a couple hundred million dollars. At the same time they were in negotiations to buy Hynix in South Korea but that did not go so well and aslo in the process of cutting production in Idaho and increasing production in their own foreign plants. They got the best of all worlds, US government aid, played in the price fixing game, reduced competition, and moved off shore.
IANAL, but the way this would be done is a class action suit. This is an action in which one or a small group of plaintiffs represent the class of people who were damaged (physically or fiscally) by an illegal practice. When they win (or, more likely, a settlement is reached before trial), all the members of the class can either opt into the class and collect their share of the settlement, or opt out and leave open the option of suing on their own.
Class ation suits can start as separate plaintiffs filing similar suits and being combined, although it is often the case that each plaintiff/group is intending to lead the class. Then the lawyers and judges sort out which jurisdiction and which law firms will lead the class action.
The attorneys get paid out of the proceeds, and only if they win. Class actions ar quite expensive and risky to prosecute. Yes, you can subpoena evidence, but defendants will literally bury you in TONS of irrelevant evidence (think semitrailers of printouts) and their laywers manufacture endless BS argunents just to run up prosectution costs and reduce the likelihood that you'll find the key bits of evidence before the discovery deadlines. So, the potential settlement needs to be in the 7-9 figure range.
But that is the where power of numbers comes in. When you get ripped off for $20, it isn't even worth your time to pick up the phone to call a lawyer, much less her time to consider the case. But, when thousands get ripped off for the same $20, it makes sense to take up arms.
So, if you want your money back, get up off your butt and find an attorney that specializes in class actions, or one who can refer you. You would do us all a favor. In fact, there may be attorneys out there right now looking for representative plaintiffs.
Consumers can file a class action lawsuit to recover inflated prices.
Samsung To Pay Out $300 Million In Anti-Trust Suit
I wonder what an Anti-Trust Suit looks like. Kinda like an Armani or a Boss?
The view was horrible and the smell was even worse; Julie severely regretted becoming a proctologist.
1. you have $100 in your wallet.
2. you do something illegal and make $100
3. you get fined $2.50
4. you'll think twice next time.
Sure. You'll think twice next time.
I can only draw one conclusion. You're an idiot.
Shouldn't they be allowed to charge whatever price they want?
http://illhostit.com/ - Webhosting
Other sources state that seven Samsung executives may still face criminal prosecution.
Fines are not tax deductible in the United States. This has been tested in court in various states, as well as federally. To put it to a rest, a federal law was passed in 2004 that explicitly makes this illegal.
Yes, just like the RIAA suit where you got what, 15 bucks for a lifetime of getting screwed?
And wasnt it a coupon so you could only redeem it while you buy yet another overpriced CD? ( notice the prices didnt go down after the judgement, so business really didnt change )
---- Booth was a patriot ----