Samsung Germany Office Raided by E.U.

Samsung Semiconductor Europe is one of several chip companies in Germany raided by the European Commission as part of an investigation into price fixing.

Samsung’s offices near Frankfurt were raided on Oct. 11 by commission officials who are investigating competition in the static RAM (SRAM) market, said Thomas Arenz, a spokesman for Samsung in Germany. The commission is the European Union’s executive and regulatory arm.

“For the time being, we are fully cooperating with the investigation,” Arenz said. So far, Samsung in Germany hasn’t been asked to turn over any specific documents or make statements, he said.

On Tuesday, the European Commission said that on Oct. 11 it conducted unannounced inspections at the offices of several SRAM producers in Germany, but it didn’t name the companies. The commission believes the companies may have been involved in price fixing, it said. In addition to the commission officials, representatives from Germany’s competition authority were at hand during the raids.

Such surprise inspections are part of the preliminary stages of an investigation into cartels, the commission said.

In October, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) also launched an antitrust investigation into the SRAM market. Five companies, including Sony Electronics, Cypress Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric, said they’ve been contacted by the DoJ regarding the investigation.

-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service (Dublin Bureau)

Related Links:

• U.S. Extends SRAM Antitrust Probe to Samsung

• Sony SRAM Sales Probed by U.S. DoJ

• Mitsubishi SRAM Sales Probed by U.S. DoJ

• Samsung Exec Pleads Guilty in DRAM Case

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.