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South Korea closes flash memory antitrust case

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CIOL Bureau
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA:  South Korea's antitrust agency said on Wednesday it had found no evidence to back allegations that makers of flash memory chips were engaged in international price fixing, after investigating the issue for nearly three years.

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The Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that its investigation did not uncover any evidence of cartel activity in South Korea or globally that affected pricing and other terms in the local market.

The agency had investigated four makers of NAND flash memory, used in handheld devices from digital music players to cameras and mobile phones. It said two were based in South Korea and the others in the United States and Japan, without identifying them.

In August, a similar investigation by the U.S. Justice Department involving the flash memory business had ended, according to Samsung Electronics Co and Toshiba Corp, the world's top two NAND flash chip makers.

Data by research firm iSuppli shows Samsung had 39.3 percent of the global NAND flash memory market in the third quarter, followed by Toshiba with 34.6 percent and Hynix Semiconductor Inc with 10 percent. Micron Technology Inc of the United States had a 7.7 percent market share.

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