A court has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron of conspiring to fix prices for DRAM, the memory chips found in phones, PCs and servers. The case, which carries the name Garciaguirre, now continues.
That is a procedural result, not a finding of guilt. At this stage a judge asks only whether the allegations, taken as true, describe a plausible claim. Surviving the motion means the plaintiffs get to pursue the case further, typically including demands for the defendants' internal documents.
The defendants are the three companies that dominate DRAM supply, which is why the claim is easy to state and hard to prove. Prices in a market with three major sellers tend to move together whether or not anyone agrees to anything. Plaintiffs in a price-fixing case generally have to show an actual agreement, not just matching behavior.
The industry has been here before. A US Justice Department investigation into DRAM pricing ended in guilty pleas in the mid-2000s. Samsung paid a $300 million criminal fine in 2005 and Hynix paid $185 million. Micron was not among those fined.
The new suit has to stand on its own evidence rather than that history. Whether discovery turns up anything resembling an agreement is the question that will decide how far it goes.