Misleading ads about Galaxy smartphones; Australia fines Samsung $14 million

SYDNEY: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) fined the South Korean tech giant Samsung $14 million for putting out misleading claims about its Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung came under investigation in 2019 after they released several ads for different Galaxy smartphone, according to GizmoChina. The report stated that the core of the ads was that the phones were made to be water-resistant when submerged for up to 30 minutes.

The tech giant also depicted in the adverts the Galaxy phones being dipped in swimming pools or getting splashes on the beach, it added.

The ads were aired on national TV in Australia and the consumer watchdog took Samsung to task for some of these ads. Samsung inherently gave a false notion of the water-resistance capability of the models.

These smartphones were only water-resistant in fresh water, not seawater or chlorinated water. The charging port was prone to corrosion under such circumstances, as per the report.

Samsung has now agreed to pay the fine of $14 million to ACCC for the misleading claims. It has also made software and hardware changes to its phones to provide a more realistic claim of water resistance.

With inputs from IANS