California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he will file an antitrust lawsuit in federal court today that charges seven computer chip-makers with conspiring to inflate prices.
Lockyer is expected to join 33 other attorneys general in a complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, against Infineon Technologies AG; Hynix Semiconductor Inc.; Micron Technology Inc.; Mosel Vitelic Inc.; Nanya Technology Corp.; Elpida Memory Inc.; and NEC Electronics America Inc.
Lockyer accused the manufacturers of restraining supplies, coordinating prices and rigging bids for their dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAM, from 1998 through June 2002. Damages suffered by California consumers and government agencies could reach into the tens of millions of dollars, according to an AG spokesman. . . .
[T]he state prosecutors' lawsuit is the latest in a four-year wave of legal attacks against the chip-makers. Federal investigators launched an investigation of the alleged conspiracy in 2002, which ultimately led to Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, Elpida and 12 individuals pleading guilty to criminal price-fixing and paying more than $730 million in collective fines.
In other words, get in line. Details here from The Recorder via Law.com.