A class-action lawsuit filed in California federal court accuses Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix of price-fixing collusion during the recent RAM shortage. The three companies control the vast majority of the global memory manufacturing market, and the suit claims they engaged in coordinated anticompetitive behavior to artificially inflate consumer pricing.
The lawsuit alleges the manufacturers simultaneously withdrew from producing consumer-grade memory chips like DDR3 and DDR4, creating artificial scarcity. This coordinated retreat shifted supply toward higher-margin enterprise and data center products, leaving PC gaming and consumer hardware makers scrambling for components at inflated costs. The timing and synchronization of these production decisions, the suit argues, suggests deliberate collusion rather than independent business choices.
RAM and storage prices spiked dramatically between 2020 and 2024, a period gamers and PC builders remember bitterly as the "RAMpocalypse." Graphics cards commanded three-figure premiums during GPU shortages, but memory saw sustained price elevation even after other components normalized. A DDR4 stick that cost $40 in 2020 could cost double that by 2022. DDR5 adoption suffered from similar premium pricing as manufacturers tightened supply.
For gaming, this translated directly to higher system costs. Budget gaming PCs jumped $200 to $300 in price. Prebuilt manufacturers passed costs to consumers, making PC gaming less accessible compared to fixed-price console hardware. The supply chain disruptions from COVID-19 served as convenient cover for what the lawsuit frames as calculated market manipulation.
Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix generate billions from memory sales annually. Their dominance leaves PC manufacturers with few alternatives, giving the defendants substantial pricing power. If the lawsuit succeeds, it could force settlements and potentially price reductions, though consumer remedies in tech