Elpida Memory and Nanya Technology have issued company statements saying they agreed to be fined by the European Commission (EC) for illegal price fixing, whereas other DRAM makers similarly fined have yet to publicly comment on the latest development.
The EC on May 18 announced its first settlement decision in a cartel case involving 10 producers of DRAM chips used in computers and servers, imposing a fine totaling 331,273,800 euros (US$409 million). Among the addressees of the decision including Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, only Micron Technology escaped a fine in return because it appeared the first to inform the EC the existence of the cartel, the EC said in a statement.
Elpida said the EC has imposed jointly and severally on Elpida, NEC and Hitachi a fine of about 8.5 million euros in relation to certain violations of the EU competition laws during the period between March 1, 2001 and June 15, 2002. Elpida said it accepted the fine.
Elpida claimed the fine will not have a material impact on its consolidated results for its current fiscal year ending March.
Nanya also announced following the EC's release that it has agreed to a fine of 1.8 million euros. "We settled with the Commission to avoid the distraction and cost of further proceedings. After almost eight years of litigation and investigative activity, we believe it is time to move forward and refocus on the growth of our business," Nanya spokesperson Pei Lin Pai said in a statement.
"Nanya has acknowledged employee or subsidiary employee participation in conversations that included mention of price information, but it did not admit contemporaneous knowledge of the cartel found by the Commission," Pai said. "However, we understand the Commission to interpret European law as forbidding essentially any price discussion between competitors, and to make a company engaging in one-on-one price discussions with a competitor liable for the activities of a broader cartel in which the competitor participated if it 'should have known' of the existence of the cartel."
|
EC: Individual fines imposed on DRAM companies involved in a cartel* (million euros) |
|
|
Reduction under the leniency notice (%) |
Reduction under the settlement notice |
Fine |
|
Micron |
100% |
N/A |
0 |
|
Infineon |
45% |
10% |
56.700 |
|
Hynix |
27% |
10% |
51.471 |
|
Samsung |
18% |
10% |
145.728 |
|
Jointly and severally Elpida, NEC Corporation, Hitachi |
18% |
10% |
8.496 |
|
Jointly and severally NEC, Hitachi** |
|
10% |
2.124 |
|
NEC** |
18% |
10% |
10.296 |
|
Hitachi** |
- |
10% |
20.412 |
|
Toshiba |
- |
10% |
17.642 |
|
Mitsubishi |
- |
10% |
16.605 |
|
Nanya |
- |
10% |
1.800 |
*Note: The overall cartel was in operation between July 1, 1998 and June 15, 2002, involving a network of contacts and sharing of secret information, mostly on a bilateral basis, through which they coordinated the price levels and quotations for DRAMs
**Note: Legal entities within the undertaking may be held jointly and severally liable for the payment of the fine
Source: EC, compiled by Digitimes, May 2010