DRAM Price Fixing Case: Get a Piece of the $310 Million Settlement Pie

[btarunr]

Did you buy computers or other consumer electronics with DRAM chips in it between 1998 and 2002? Chances are, that you've been done over by organized price-fixing by DRAM manufacturers that made computers and consumer electronics costlier than they should have been. An online claim portal sprung up in accordance with the ruling in the DRAM Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, which lets the general public (you) file a claim, seeking compensation from DRAM manufacturers.

A typical successful claim should entitle you to a compensation of $10, but in certain cases, the compensation can go as high as $1,000. Documentation (proof of purchase) is not required, but the site advises you to hold on to any documentation that you have, apart from the equipment itself. The litigation covers "indirect purchasers" only, which includes people who purchased pre-built PCs, laptops, mobile phones, game consoles, and graphics cards. People who directly purchased DRAM from DRAM makers (such as aftermarket DRAM modules), aren't eligible. However, you could argue in your claim that even while you purchased your modules from, say, OCZ, that company sourced DRAM chips from, say, Hyundai (Hynix) or Samsung, making it an "indirect purchase." Be imaginative. Get the online claims form, along with other FAQs here.



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[HumanSmoke]

I knew I should have held on to the sales receipts for my Voodoo 3 and GeForce2 GTS. DAMN twenty buck lost opportunity!

/Notes that it only applies to U.S. sales
//Goes back to not caring

 

[Jorge]

Quote: "be imaginative" in making claims???

Either you have a legitimate claim or you don't. The class action will clearly define who is and who is not eligible. False claims constitutes fraud and you can go to jail for making false claims. Is it worth it for $10? Hardly. Anyone that thinks they will be getting $1,000 or more had better be an OEM with all the documents to prove their claim. For $10. you might get away with fraud but not for a $1000 claim.

Encouraging fraud is disgraceful and no better than those who price fix.

 

[v12dock]

I knew I should have held on to the sales receipts for my Voodoo 3 and GeForce2 GTS. DAMN twenty buck lost opportunity!

/Notes that it only applies to U.S. sales
//Goes back to not caring

"You don’t need any documentation to file your claim. So don’t let that stop you. Only if the Claims Administrator ever asks for documentation will you need to provide it. The Claims Administrator understands the difficulty of maintaining records from more than a decade ago. If the Claims Administrator does request documentation, you can send a letter explaining what proof if any you have of the purchases you’ve claimed and it will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. You can still get paid even if you don’t have any documentation."

 

[btarunr]

Quote: "be imaginative" in making claims???

Either you have a legitimate claim or you don't. The class action will clearly define who is and who is not eligible. False claims constitutes fraud and you can go to jail for making false claims. Is it worth it for $10? Hardly. Anyone that thinks they will be getting $1,000 or more had better be an OEM with all the documents to prove their claim. For $10. you might get away with fraud but not for a $1000 claim.

Encouraging fraud is disgraceful and no better than those who price fix.

You don't know if it's fraud. Corsair, for example, sells you "memory modules," and not "DRAM." The argument is over whether a fully finished memory module that has DRAM chips that are obviously not made by Corsair, constitutes as an indirect purchase, or a direct one. There's no harm done (even ethically), in filing a claim over something that you're yourself not clear about. Claims can be turned down, and it ends up being a learning experience.

Nice straw man, btw.

 

[HumanSmoke]

"You don’t need any documentation to file your claim. So don’t let that stop you. Only if the Claims Administrator ever asks for documentation will you need to provide it. The Claims Administrator understands the difficulty of maintaining records from more than a decade ago. If the Claims Administrator does request documentation, you can send a letter explaining what proof if any you have of the purchases you’ve claimed and it will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. You can still get paid even if you don’t have any documentation."

From the site:

[If] Your purchase was made in the United States, which includes Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. territories, or from a seller located in the United States

I don't live in the U.S., and there were precious few U.S. retailers shipping consumer electronics to my country in 2002 (or earlier)
Get it?

You don't know if it's fraud. Corsair, for example, sells you "memory modules," and not "DRAM." The argument is over whether a fully finished memory module that has DRAM chips that are obviously not made by Corsair.

Should be a relatively easy task to cross reference the defendants with the chips under the heatspreaders

 

[SeventhReign]

Well Shoot ... the last PC I bought in 2001 was an Alienware and it had RDRam ... Overpriced pieces of crap those were. $400 for 128 MB!!!!!!!!!

 

[Arjai]

My Goal in Life, among other's, is to never be a part of a class action suit. So far, including this, I have been successful in not being a subject of one. Lucky? Or, maybe, not looking hard enough?

 

[HumanSmoke]

Well Shoot ... the last PC I bought in 2001 was an Alienware and it had RDRam ... Overpriced pieces of crap those were. $400 for 128 MB!!!!!!!!!

Maybe you could sue Rambus! Wouldn't that be a novel turn of events.

 

[rooivalk]

I remember 128MB of SDRAM is $200 (in my country) in beginning of 2000 but a year later it's $20 lol.

 

[Exceededgoku]

I'd rather they used that $310 mil to reduce current prices. I don't care about losing $10 12-14 years ago...

 

[TheGuruStud]

I'd rather they used that $310 mil to reduce current prices. I don't care about losing $10 12-14 years ago...

If anyone has been paying attention they are price fixing now and admitting it. There was "too much" competition, so they all agreed to cut production to inflate the prices. The prices have doubled.

 

[Steevo]

I filed for the memory, graphics cards, printer, DVD player, and PC I bought. Ahh windows 98SE and AMD K6-2 500 with 512Mb of RAM and a 7000 then later a 7500, before that a Cirrus card....those were the days, playing CIV and Need for speed. Memory used to be really expensive, really really expensive. For example boards with cache on them cost almost twice as much as ones without.

 

[chodaboy19]

It's mostly going into the pockets of the lawyers. That's how all class action lawsuits work.

 

[dj-electric]

Hey, where can i claim to today's jacked-up prices of DRAM since the industry lost a very very small portion about a year ago?

 

[Steevo]

Hey, where can i claim to today's jacked-up prices of DRAM since the industry lost a very very small portion about a year ago?

http://www.jcmit.com/memoryprice.htm

$170-71 even as high as $300 for 64/128MB of PC-100 in the year 1999/2000 now buys you 8/64GB. It was absurdly expensive in the early 90's, but by this time in 99/2000 the processes were well developed. Thus why new graphics cards, DVD-Rom's with high speed cache and other devices were expensive, and even older process memory was jacked up in price.

 

[rayhow]

is it only for USA only or world-wide?


raymond

 

[de.das.dude]

pretty sure there is a price fixing thing with HDD and RAM going on in the current market as well.

 

[Bot]

there is price fixing everywhere and it won't stop after this. it is a good way to teach them a lesson thou and the only way to get their attention is to hit them in the wallet. i filed to add my little dig to the share. feel like sending a small message is better than sending no message