Following the legal class action case in California that saw Nvidia and ATI accused of colluding together to fix GPU prices, Nvidia has offered a settlement agreement to the certified class that brought the action. This class can include anyone who bought a graphics card directly from Nvidia or ATI’s website in the US between 4 December 2002 and 7 November 2007.

The settlement agreement is detailed in an 8-K form that was filed on 24 September. The agreement calls for Nvidia to pay $850,000 into a total fund of $1.7 million, with AMD/ATI presumably paying in another $850,000 to make up the other half, although we’re waiting for AMD to confirm this. However, the 8-K form says that the agreement is still ‘subject to court approval.’ If the agreement is approved, then Nvidia says that it ‘would dispose of all claims and appeals raised by the certified class in the Action against Nvidia.’The 8-K form also details a settlement agreement with the individual plaintiffs who brought the case to court, saying that Nvidia will ‘pay $112,500 in exchange for a dismissal of all claims and appeals related to the Action raised by the individual indirect purchaser plaintiffs.’ This settlement, says Nvidia, ‘is not subject to the approval of the District Court.’ According to the form, this agreement has already been accepted, and the plaintiffs have now ‘dismissed their claims and withdrawn their appeal of the class certification ruling.’

The antitrust case alleged that ‘Nvidia and ATI conducted numerous secret meetings and communications in which they conspired to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize prices of GPUs sold in the United States. At these meetings, Defendants also colluded to coordinate the timing of new product introductions that were based on similar, competing technologies which also had the effect of fixing, raising, maintaining, and stabilizing GPU prices.’

With the plaintiffs dismissing their claims, and the settlement agreement waiting for court approval, it looks as though this is the last we’ll see of this antitrust case. However, it’s interesting that neither company has been proved innocent in this case, with the claims being dismissed out of court instead.