A decade and a half ago, the leading RAM manufacturers established a price-fixing agreement that allowed them to inflate the value of their products, whether as individual modules or preinstalled in other systems. The US justice system detected and condemned the scheme, and ordered compensation to affected users. Social media reports that the first checks are already in the mail, and although it is very late for the rest of the world, it is also good to know that things have changed since then.
If you lived in the United States between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2002, and during that period you purchased any kind of device containing RAM memory, it is very likely that, had you followed the proper legal process, you would receive a check with a fixed sum as compensation. Many people across the pond were recently surprised with a check ranging from $70 to $128, but since nobody usually gives away money, a deeper explanation is needed. Between 1998 and 2002, the main RAM manufacturers established a price-fixing agreement behind the scenes that allowed them to artificially inflate the final cost of their products.
This kind of maneuver only destroys the concept of competition in a market and harms the consumer's pocket. If the idea of half a dozen scoundrels getting together for coffee and deciding to manipulate prices just because they can seems despicable to you, then you understand the seriousness of the matter. The point is that in 2014, the US justice system ordered those involved (among them names such as Micron, Nanya, Elpida, Samsung, Crucial, Hynix, Infineon, Winbond, and NEC) to pay the sum of $310 million, of which $200 million were set aside for everyday users, and which began to circulate in the aforementioned checks.
Logically, with the delivery of the checks, the process is finalized, since all claim routes were closed in August 2014. But even if it comes fifteen years late, we are pleased to know that some form of compensation existed, and that it serves as a warning so that the "new generation" of scoundrels in the computing world does not do something similar today.
