Micron, Samsung, and Hynix are facing a class action lawsuit in the United States, accusing the three companies of violating antitrust laws BlockBeats News: On June 29th, last Friday, the Northern District Court of California received a class action lawsuit against Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology. The plaintiffs, including consumers and small businesses, accuse three companies of violating antitrust laws by coordinating restrictions on traditional DRAM capacity supply to artificially create shortages and drive up prices. According to the data cited in the lawsuit, the aforementioned collaborative actions have led to a cumulative increase of approximately 700% in commercial DRAM prices over the past four years, causing widespread impact on global consumer electronics and commercial IT procurement. Apple's recent large-scale price hikes on iPad and Mac have been cited by the plaintiff as a typical case of price transmission: the supply gap created by the three manufacturers in the upstream has been passed on through the industrial chain layer by layer, ultimately falling on end consumers. The legal arguments in this lawsuit did not come out of thin air. Samsung and SK Hynix officially pleaded guilty to a criminal price manipulation case filed by the US Department of Justice in the 2000s. The two companies paid a total of $731 million in fines and several executives involved were sentenced to imprisonment. The lawsuit cites this historical record to present to the court a systematic and repetitive pattern of collusion among the three companies, in order to strengthen the credibility and legal effectiveness of the current charges. Compared to the defendant being charged for the first time, this criminal record provides a stronger reference for the plaintiff, and also increases the public opinion and legal costs for the defendant's defense.