A legal challenge has now been launched against the high RAM prices
Memory prices are rising and rising. The AI boom is not said to be the sole cause of this. A class action lawsuit filed in California also blames price-fixing by the three major RAM manufacturers.
Samsung, SK hynix and Micron were sued on 25 June in the US District Court for the Northern District of California for price-fixing https://www.law360.com/articles/2493985/major-chipmakers-sued-for-price-fixing-amid-rampocalypse-. In addition to price-fixing, they are alleged to have created artificial shortages to keep memory prices high. The lawsuits have been brought by several consumers and companies that purchased the manufacturers’ products during the current price rises.
DDR5 memory, as used in many consumer PCs, has seen a massive price rise over the past year. The statement of claim refers to an increase of up to 700 per cent compared with the previous year. Manufacturers are increasingly shifting their production capacity to HBM memory, as used in GPUs for AI applications. Orders are already booked well into the future – a large proportion of manufacturing capacity is reportedly set to be reserved for HBM production until 2030. Consequently, very little remains for standard RAM.
The lawsuit is now demanding that manufacturers ramp up the production and availability of consumer DRAM once again. Apple is cited, amongst others, as evidence of the impact: The company recently raised prices across virtually its entire product range /page/apple-erhoeht-preise-fuer-macs-und-ipads-43099, from Macs to iPhones, explicitly citing rising memory prices as the reason.
At the heart of the case is the allegation of cartel agreements between Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix. And this is not entirely unfounded: As far back as 2002, the US Department of Justice had imposed fines running into millions on precisely these companies for similar price-fixing schemes – including prison sentences for several team leaders.
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