Pile On the Redundancy!
For several years, the U.S. DOJ has prosecuted and settled antitrust lawsuits against several international DRAM computer chip manufacturers. The DOJ’s Thomas O. Barnett, Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, emphasized that the suits “prosecute and deter cartels that harm American consumers.” In other words, when it comes to international antitrust, the United States Department of Justice has got your back. So far, settling individual DRAM makers have paid more than $730M in total fines.
Yesterday, a Wall Street Journal editorial (”When the Chips Are Down,” July 18, 2006) described the AGs role in the DRAM cases: “Enter the state AGs, who have now ridden in on their taxpayer-funded horses to shoot the wounded.” 34 state AGs, you see, have taken it upon themselves to form a “class” of in order to recoup damages. A consumer class action already exists.
We don’t question the guilt of the DRAM cartel, but three suits against the same companies for the same crime worries us. Are three bouts of litigation necessary or desirable?
Perhaps a big book about international antitrust would help us puzzle this stuff out.