(OK, in 1986)
Posted on 04/26/2006 9:11:01 PM PDT by CAWats
The curtain has yet to fall on one of the most flagrant price fixing conspiracies in U.S. history — one that likely caused you to pay more for PCs and other products.
The U.S. Department of Justice over the last two-plus years charged four memory chip companies, and 12 high-level managers with these companies, with conspiring to fix prices.
All the companies and individuals indicted have pleaded guilty. While it won't say whether it will file more charges, the DOJ does confirm that its investigation remains ongoing.
The biggest issues outstanding might well be how the case will affect the only two big U.S. tech firms involved, Micron Technology (MU) and Rambus. (RMBS) Micron is the only large memory maker not charged in the case. Rambus holds patents on certain memory technology that it claims played a role in the affair.
Though a big case for the government, it hasn't received much attention from the public.
This type of collusion hurts consumers, says attorney John Ward of San Jose, Calif., law firm Greenberg Traurig, which is not involved in the case.
"Consumers end up paying the price," he said. "It's unfortunate this case hasn't received more publicity. More publicity would help dissuade this type of activity in the future."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
No surprise there.
And coffee, and milk, and bottled water, and probably beans, too.
(OK, in 1986)
get ready for your class action refund coupon...
Thank God the oil companies haven't done anything like that.
I used to run a division of a semi-conductor company and price fixing was very common.
$9.95 off the next software/hardware release.
Of course the lawyers get millions. It was class action that gave us Breck Girl Edwards.
Damn. Can I go after Radio Shack for that $900 piece of crap Tandy that my wife made me buy?
Hey in the 80s I paid more for an add on floppy disk drive (5") in then year dollars than I'd pay for a complete comptuter in now year dollars.
I bet anyone who paid that much for it does feel like a DAK.
Gee, I'm a victim and didn't even realize it. Where do I get my reparations?
Classic!
$999 and they don't even supply a mouse.
One of the first laptops. I think it had a whopping 512K of memory.
And yet I've paid ever lower prices for RAM the past year.
Just damn.
I was going to say, there can't be all that much price-fixing if I'm paying $42 (Canadian) for 512 Megs of Ram.
Or, hell, when I only paid $120 for 512 Megs of Apple iBook SODIMM ram.
Either way, it looks like you'd end up with a numb, scorched lap with these clunkers.
Good for the biceps.
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