Class-action lawsuit against DRAM manufacturers. Possible price drop for the Switch?

FRANCISCO – Consumers today filed a class-action lawsuit against the three largest manufacturers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), stating they illegally agreed to raise prices of DRAM, a critical component of smartphones, laptops and other electronics, therefore pushing price increases onto consumers who purchased devices containing DRAM, according to Hagens Berman.

Did you purchase a smartphone or computer between July 1, 2016 and Feb. 1, 2018? You may have overpaid for your device. Sign up for the case and learn more.

The lawsuit, filed Apr. 27, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was spurred by a proprietary, independent investigation by the law firm’s antitrust attorneys who determined that DRAM manufacturers Samsung, Micron and Hynix agreed to limit the supply of DRAM, driving up prices for this widely used memory.

Samsung, Micron and Hynix collectively controlled 96 percent of the worldwide DRAM market share as of mid-2017. The price of 4GB DRAM saw a 130 percent jump during the period specified in the lawsuit, and as prices soared, so did defendants’ profits. Between Q1 2016 and Q3 2017, Samsung, Micron and Hynix’s revenues from global DRAM sales more than doubled.

“What we’ve uncovered in the DRAM market is a classic antitrust, price-fixing scheme in which a small number of kingpin corporations hold the lion’s share of the market,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman. “Instead of playing by the rules, Samsung, Micron and Hynix chose to put consumers in a chokehold, wringing the market for more profit.”

Source: Hagens Berman Law firm

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Why is this System Wars relevant? Well PC gaming relies on RAM, and price fixing is screwing up people from building an affordable gaming PC and Nintendo uses Samsung's LDDR4 RAM for the system.

@techhog89 This could be good, Nintendo could possibly do a price drop this year if the lawsuit passes in the US for Black Friday. DRAM is used on the Internal Storage and the manufacturer of the LPDDR4 is used by Samsung. DRAM is also used for the Switch game carts and it's already troubling that 3rd parties use small carts to cram their games and having to download half of them. So far, nothing is known for Europe or Japan, but I also hope this follows through globally.

So much for free market

Again? I seem to recall a similar lawsuit several years ago. I got like $20 from it for purchasing a PS2 which was on the list.

Geez. What's the use of having competition if they're all going to become oligopolies anyway? That's some bullshit.

Hopefully I get a refund for the 64GB of DDR4 Ram I got for my PC

I knew something was up with these prices and no shortage to be seen.

lawsuit take years and if i where to guest the outcome of the lawsuit Samsung, Micron and Hynix will win demand for dram have been up and they're making new factories.

So...the switch will get cheaper? I really don't know what this means at all.

@Ant_17: possibly. Basically, to the extent the RAM manufacturers inflated prices, hardware companies like Nintendo might have to hold higher pricepoints in order to make their own desired profit margins. This really isn't a Switch-specific issue, though, but I suppose it could enable Nintendo to lower Switch prices and make the same profit if it's resolved

@xantufrog: don't forget, this is another reason why building a gaming PC got expensive. Especially since DDR5 is coming out soon

Nice finally can upgrade my PC DDR4 RAM

@FireEmblem_Man: Now that GPU prices are going back to normal I hope the same happens for RAM soon. Nvidia have stated their next generation of cards will have a 20% price increase because of RAM

Also hasn't Samsung been caught before trying to artificially inflate prices?

I highly doubt we would get a Switch price drop. The demand for the console is still healthy at its current price point. Nintendo will just take any cost savings in.

Yeah, because lawsuits always drop prices...

Nope.

They should do the same with Steam.

chump change for them....they've been fined before...didn't stop them I guess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing

So what's the government going to do? sue them and then they will just cut chips for the US? or make them triple the price as result?

Never understood this.

Not like US can do without memory chips.

Beyond me how they can call games renting while you have a life time license that gets sold. How this hasn't been pulled through EU court is just amazing.

You aren't familiar with how these things go down, are you? These lawsuits take years and always end in nothing more than a fine. Also, FYI the other consoles are affected as well.

Sometimes I wonder if there is a part of business that is not corrupt. Fines don't faze them. We may need more jail-time for corporates violating the laws. We do it for small time crime. So why not for the more powerful crooks who are actually hurting the system at large?

It's just silly to make them pay 10% of the profit they made by breaking the law and expect them to do better next time. We don't treat other people like that. There's no way to explain that to the people. Find the person actually responsible (not the person the company deems responsible). Throw them in jail and don't let them back in a position of power.

You don't fix prices 'by mistake.'