The European Commission has reached its first cartel-busting settlement under "fast track" procedures introduced two years ago.

Under the deal, ten companies that produce memory chips have agreed to pay fines totaling €331 million ($409 million). The companies were involved in price-fixing between 1998 and 2002.

Samsung will pay the biggest single penalty in the case (€146 million, U.S. $181 million) followed by Infineon (€57 million, U.S. $70 million) and Hynix (€51 million, U.S. $64 million). All of the companies had their fines reduced by 10 percent because they agreed to settle; some of them were given further discounts for cooperating with the Commission more extensively. The company that blew the whistle on the cartel back in 2002, Micron, was not fined.

Under the fast-track process companies can secure a 10 percent fine reduction if they admit their guilt and agree to accept a fine before the Commission brings formal charges.

When the process was launched lawyers questioned whether a 10 percent discount was sufficient to tempt any companies to settle, unless the evidence against them was overwhelming.

But at the conclusion of this case Joaquin Almunia, EU competition commissioner, said there were "several more settlement cases in the pipeline."

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