Samsung to pay $300M for price fixing, Apple a victim

Federal officials today announced that Samsung and its U.S. subsidiary Samsung Semiconductor will plead guilty to price fixing that harmed Apple Computer and other companies, and pay a $300 million fine, the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in history. The three-year investigation finishes with two competitors of Samsung pleading guilty, Hynix and Infineon Technologies, both agreeing to pay fines of $185 million and $160 million respectively, according to a report from the Associated Press. Samsung received grand jury subpoenas in connection with the investigation during 2002, and put aside $100 million late last year to pay potential criminal penalties, according to the report. Victims of the alleged price-fixing were Apple Computer, Dell, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines, and Gateway. Earlier this month of Samsung and Apple may be facing an anti-trust probe by South Korea's government regarding Flash memory pricing, following reports of prefential pricing for flash memory for Apple's iPod nano.

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