EU regulators fine major chipmakers €331million over price fixing
1 min read
Nine memory chip makers, including world leader Samsung Electronics have been fined a total €331million by EU regulators for illegally fixing prices.
The EU antitrust watchdog levied its biggest penalty of €145.73m against Samsung, while Infineon was fined €56.70m and Hynix Semiconductor €51.47m for a cartel of dram chipmakers that operated from July 1998 to June 2002.
The other companies in the cartel include Hitachi, which received a fine of €20.41m, Toshiba which was fined €17.64m and Mitsubishi Electric, which was fined €16..61m.
The case is the first under a European Commission settlement procedure introduced in July 2008 in which companies admit taking part in a cartel in return for a 10% cut in fines.
"By acknowledging their participation in a cartel the companies have allowed the Commission to bring this long running investigation to a close and to free up resources to investigate other suspected cartels," Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement.
The Commission has championed the new procedure as a more effective method to deter violations and speed up the decision making process. It can fine companies up to 10% of their global turnover for breaking EU laws.
