Nine chip makers have been fined 331m euros (£283.1m, $404.2m) by European Union regulators for illegally fixing prices.

The companies involved are Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida and Nanya.

A 10th chip maker, Micron, was also part of the price-fixing cartel but escaped a fine in return for alerting the competition authorities.

The chips - DRAMS - are used in popular items such as personal computers.

No one gets off that easily

Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s new commissioner for competition policy said that the EC will continue to monitor tech companies for anti-trust behaviour. There had been a thought that Almunia might be a bit kinder to technology companies than his predecessor, Neelie Kroes, who slapped a €1 billion fine on Intel for antitrust violations and took Microsoft to the cleaners.

The Intel penalty remains the highest the EU has ever imposed on a single company but Intel is appealing the decision.