Samsung, SK hynix and Micron sued in the US over memory price fixing

Fourteen individual consumers and three small businesses, including PC retailers, have sued Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron in a California federal court over alleged memory price fixing. The complaint was filed on June 25 and was reported by the technology outlet Wccftech and the legal publication LAW360.

The allegations

The plaintiffs say the three companies, which make most of the world's DRAM, colluded on supply and pricing from 2022 and drove prices up by about 700 percent over four years. They claim the manufacturers cut DRAM supply under the pretext of transitioning to high bandwidth memory (HBM), arguing that the DRAM oligopoly systematically coordinated the shift to HBM and the discontinuation of DDR3 and DDR4. According to the filing, Apple's recent sweeping product price increases were the trigger for the lawsuit, amid a broader wave of so-called chipflation.

Legal exposure

The suit is small in scale so far, but it could expand considerably if the court accepts the plaintiffs' claims and formally certifies it as a class action. The plaintiffs are represented by the antitrust firm Bathaee Dunne, which aims to represent all general consumers and businesses that purchased products containing DRAM. The same firm previously won a case alleging collusion in Google's digital advertising. Should the plaintiffs ultimately prevail in a class action, the defendant companies would have to pay triple the damages. A further concern for the chipmakers is that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have previously been found guilty of collusion in the United States: both were found to have engaged in price fixing in the early 2000s, resulting in large fines as well as prison sentences for executives.

What the industry expects

Industry players including the investment bank Jefferies forecast that the lawsuit will not affect memory prices at least until the end of this year. The report was published by Seoul Economic Daily on June 29, 2026, written by Park Yoon-sun and translated from the Korean original.