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Samsung Slapped With Fine for Bad Marketing Tactic

By - Source: AP via PhysOrg | B 23 comments

Samsung Fined for Paying for Negative Comments About HTC

It's been months since Samsung made the news for allegedly paying for negative comments about its competitors, but official investigations take time to run their course. As such, Samsung is only now facing the consequences of its actions. Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has just levied a fine against the South Korean company for the 'astroturfing' campaign.

According to the Associated Press, Samsung has been handed a fine amounting to $340,000, while two Taiwanese trading companies that played a part in running the campaign also received fines. Back in April, it was alleged that Samsung's marketing division had hired students to post negative comments about the HTC One on a number of tech/gadget websites that linked to favorable benchmark results for the HTC One. At the time Samsung said that "future marketing work would be more in line with its company philosophy of transparency and honesty."

Though Samsung hasn't offered any official comment on the fine, the company hit the headlines this past summer when HTC publicly brought up the astroturfing incident. Samsung and HTC traded barbs following a UK awards show when HTC rubbed its winning Hottest Phone of 2013 (for the HTC One) in Samsung's face (via Twitter, of course). Samsung shot back that it had won three awards; HTC responded with a reference to paid reviews. HTC hasn't yet commented on the fines levied against Samsung (we'll keep an eye on their Twitter accounts, though).

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  • 9 Hide
    scannall , October 25, 2013 6:21 AM
    $340,000.00 fine? Barely noticeable, and they got their money's worth out of it. It's not at all surprising though. Dishonest, unethical and shady are probably the nicest things you can say about them.
  • 0 Hide
    steved54321 , October 25, 2013 6:42 AM
    That's just dirty, but we all live in a dirty world...
  • Display all 23 comments.
  • 1 Hide
    Fabel , October 25, 2013 6:56 AM
    X had been doing these practices against Y on Z do they get fined.

    Replace X Y Z. If you present no evidence...you are not better.
  • 1 Hide
    sp00 , October 25, 2013 7:09 AM
    That is dirty and I don't support that!
  • 0 Hide
    happyballz , October 25, 2013 7:20 AM
    I liked Samsung products but every year they are continually trying to screw their customers more and more... especially the people who like to tinker and mod the OS on the phone. However this time they implemented, "region locking" that makes your phone unable to function in other countries with other SIM cards from other providers.

    And don't even buy into their "activate once with "local" SIM card and then use anywhere BS" ... there are numerous people reporting this to be a lie.
  • 0 Hide
    Lachezar Tsochev , October 25, 2013 7:33 AM
    You actually do support that by buying a Samsung product. Just saying.
  • 2 Hide
    Lachezar Tsochev , October 25, 2013 7:35 AM
    And the guy saying that AMD is doing the same is a complete douche, no excuses. It was Intel paying workshops not to use AMD products. And now Nvidia is doing the same with their battlebox forcing manufacturers not to use AMD for exclusivity. Foul language not necessary.
  • 2 Hide
    cityuser , October 25, 2013 7:38 AM
    If such measure be seriously taken across the industry, nVidia should be fined at least 10 billion U.S. dollars as they use the same tactics (since the launch of GF3) to farme AMD a bad-driver image over years
  • 0 Hide
    littleleo , October 25, 2013 5:02 PM
    That fine is a joke they probably spend more in a day on TP. Looks more like a win for Samsung then a punishment.
  • 0 Hide
    Portser , October 25, 2013 5:11 PM
    I actually think refillable might be getting paid by nVidia. Or be trying to get them to pay him.
  • -1 Hide
    house70 , October 25, 2013 6:46 PM
    Quote:
    $340,000.00 fine? Barely noticeable, and they got their money's worth out of it. It's not at all surprising though. Dishonest, unethical and shady are probably the nicest things you can say about them.


    A fine is a fine. Can't give different fines for same infraction. Just because you could afford it doesn't mean you should be fined more for speeding than someone else with lower income. Same principle applies here.
  • 1 Hide
    bustapr , October 25, 2013 7:48 PM
    im not at all in favor of this behavior, especially if its hurting a company with minimal market share which is struggling to stay in business.
  • 1 Hide
    eddieroolz , October 25, 2013 11:05 PM
    Frankly this is something that should be regulated with a heavy hand. It doesn't matter who's astroturfing who; the consumers should all be against this act.
  • 1 Hide
    TimeLass , October 25, 2013 11:12 PM
    Cheaters... cheaters everywhere... will never support Samsung again in the future
  • -1 Hide
    HiTekMuppet , October 25, 2013 11:27 PM
    That's Samsung for you. Zero creativity, shameless copying. Now add unethical behavior to the list too, whether it's cheating on benchmarks or doing something like this against a much, much smaller company.

    I really appreciate creativity, in people and companies alike. Samsung is huge and yet most of the smaller competitors bring new ideas to the table while Samsung waits for successful or potentially successful products and puts all its might behind a copycat product markets the crap out of it.
  • -1 Hide
    HiTekMuppet , October 25, 2013 11:35 PM
    That's Samsung for you. Zero creativity, shameless copying. Now add unethical behavior to the list too, whether it's cheating on benchmarks or doing something like this against a much, much smaller company.

    I really appreciate creativity, in people and companies alike. Samsung is huge and yet most of the smaller competitors bring new ideas to the table while Samsung waits for successful or potentially successful products and puts all its might behind a copycat product markets the crap out of it.
  • 0 Hide
    falchard , October 25, 2013 11:55 PM
    Taiwanese courts finds Korean Company treated Taiwanese Company unfairly.
  • 0 Hide
    IndignantSkeptic , October 26, 2013 12:10 AM
    I lost all respect for Samsung because they use Pentile screens.
  • 0 Hide
    TwoBridges , October 26, 2013 10:21 AM
    Apple saturates tech sites with free gifts to authors for positive reviews. The saturate movies and TV with product placement and they have the US president overturn bans on Apple while keeping bans on others!

    THIS IS NOTHING TO WHAT CRAPPLE DOES EVERYDAY!
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