November 13, 2009
The Financial Post has reported that the British Columbia Court of Appeal has approved the DRAM memory class action. The Court of Appeal has reversed a lower court ruling certifying a class action against a group of five technology manufacturers accused of fixing their prices for computer memory chips.
In this case (Pro-Sys Consultants Ltd. v. Infineon Technologies AG) the Court held that the British Columbia Class Proceedings Act should be “construed generously in order to achieve its objectives” (for example, to improve access to justice and avoid duplication in legal proceedings).
This latest case is the most recent in a number of price-fixing class actions commenced under the Competition Act including a recent plaintiff-favourable Ontario indirect purchaser certification judgment relating to hydrogen peroxide.
In this case, the respondent computer firms include Infineon, Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Micron Technology Inc. And Elpida Memory, Inc. Together, these firms represesent approximately 76% of the global production of “dynamic random access memory” (DRAM) that provides electronic memory and information retrieval for computer and telecommunications products. Three of the respondents have settled U.S. class action proceedings for USD $160 million. All of the respondents (except Micron) have pleaded guilty to criminal cartel charges in the U.S. and have paid fines totaling about USD 731 million. In addition, several executives of the companies have either paid fines or served prison terms.
With the recent sweeping changes to Canada’s Competition Act this past spring, private action activity (including class actions commenced under the Competition Act) is expected to increase. Key changes to the criminal conspiracy provisions of Canada’s competition legislation include increasing the penalties for criminal conspiracies to fourteen years imprisonment and/or criminal fines up to CDN $25 million (up from five years and CDN $10 million) and introducing new U.S.-style “per se” criminal conspiracy offences for price fixing, market allocation and output restriction agreements (with no competitive effects test or adverse market effects required).
**********
SERVICES AND CONTACT
I am a Toronto competition and advertising lawyer offering business and individual clients efficient and strategic advice in relation to competition/antitrust, advertising, Internet and new media law and contest law. I also offer competition and regulatory law compliance, education and policy services to companies, trade and professional associations and government agencies.
My experience includes advising clients in Toronto, Canada and the US on the application of Canadian competition and regulatory laws and I have worked on hundreds of domestic and cross-border competition, advertising and marketing, promotional contest (sweepstakes), conspiracy (cartel), abuse of dominance, compliance, refusal to deal, pricing and distribution, Investment Canada Act and merger matters. For more information about my competition and advertising law services see: competition law services.
To contact me about a potential legal matter see: contact
For more regulatory law updates follow me on Twitter: @CanadaAttorney
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
