Eliot Spitzer sues memory chipmakers for price fixing

Eliot Spitzer sues memory chipmakers for price fixing

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has now sued computer memory chipmakers including the leaders Samsung Electronics for allegedly conspiring to raise memory chip prices and cheating customers.

Interestingly, this lawsuit is now expected to be followed by similar but separate suits by California and 33 other U.S. states. They are primarily targeting seven companies including Micron, Infineon Technologies AG and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

The lawsuit is asking for damages estimated as high as hundreds of millions of dollars. Samsung responded by saying that they believe that this lawsuit would be settled pretty soon and they had anticipated something like this to happen.

Interestingly, this new lawsuit comes after a U.S. Justice Department probe launched in 2002 that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. The companies affected in that lawsuit were Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, Elpida Memory Inc. and others.