Samsung Facing Probe for False Advertising in Taiwan

Earlier last week, TaiwanSamsungLeaks.org accused the company of engaging in "evil marketing" and released a plethora of documents that supposedly indicated 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 favorably selected benchmark results. Also, it was alleged that the phone experienced a host of problems including, but not limited to, constant crashing.

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TSL's allegations were subsequently confirmed on Samsung Taiwan’s Facebook Page. In a statement to the BBC in which the company announced that it had "ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments." Furthermore, Samsung would engage in employee training to ensure that these events were not repeated, and they promised that “future marketing work would be more in line with its company philosophy of transparency and honesty.”

Though this form of advertising conduct is certainly nothing new, we still cannot fathom why the company, or rather individuals within the company, felt a need to stoop to this level, possibly damaging Samsung's reputation as well as incurring significant legal penalties. After all, Samsung currently holds a comfortable 21.4 percent share of the smartphone market; is expecting the Galaxy S IV to be yet another success; and its rival, HTC, on top of its rather dismal financial results, is even facing problems manufacturing its flagship due to complications with its camera.

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Tarun Iyer was a contributor for Tom's Hardware who wrote news covering a wide range of technology topics, including processors, graphics cards, cooling systems, and computer peripherals. He also covered tech trends such as the development of adaptive all-in-one PCs.

24 Comments Comment from the forums

Icecweam7

Another black eye for Samsung. The worst type of probe that they could be facing (if Samsung is suspected of hiding anything) will be the inevitable and embarrassing anal probe.
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nuvon

Only $840,000?
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bebangs

greed
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260511

the two tech companies that would never get a dime of my money would be samsung and apple
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dillonpeterliam

I don't like the direction Samsung seem to be taking, every since they became "probably" the number 1 smartphone manufacturer they have started to go the way of the "evil" big companies . . . .like Apple :)
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g00fysmiley

why would they need to badmouth htc? seems their products speak bad enough about the company themselves. I have a few friends with evos and they are still stuck on 2.3 with no updates to 4.0, they all seem to have the same kind of taxt messages not being received on time problems alongside abysmakl battery life. My wife's htc evo 3-d has android 4.0 but now we are at 4.2 and will liekly never be updated. she has to reset her phone once per day at least when she is not even getting text messages or able to send them out. my sister returned an htc one for similar reasons... seems like they make junk and don't support/update it and i can't think of anybody i knwo saying anythign positive about htc products... so why badmouth them when by scomparisons samsung products are made of gold and shoot out rainbows
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g00fysmiley

why would they need to badmouth htc? seems their products speak bad enough about the company themselves. I have a few friends with evos and they are still stuck on 2.3 with no updates to 4.0, they all seem to have the same kind of taxt messages not being received on time problems alongside abysmakl battery life. My wife's htc evo 3-d has android 4.0 but now we are at 4.2 and will liekly never be updated. she has to reset her phone once per day at least when she is not even getting text messages or able to send them out. my sister returned an htc one for similar reasons... seems like they make junk and don't support/update it and i can't think of anybody i knwo saying anythign positive about htc products... so why badmouth them when by scomparisons samsung products are made of gold and shoot out rainbows
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Non-Euclidean

OK, Taiwan, I anxiously await your sanctions against Microsoft for their "evil" marketing efforts for Windows 8 and Surface. After I bought one, I went outside and it didnt make me feel like dancing in a circle. And when I tried to dance anyways, noone joined in and people laughed at me.
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sundragon

"Samsung may have been "worried" about the "design and build quality of their mobile devices" and "green with envy" over the HTC One's aluminum unibody construction."

You just need to hold the two devices to see and feel the build quality.

Samsung just needs to start using aluminum or magnesium and pay attention to their Industrial Design. People are willing to pay for well built devices - Apple and Lenovo (Lenovo pre Chinese buyout) prove that.

A lot of people have had issues with HTC's function/support/software where Samsung far surpasses HTC on that mark and honestly - it's a phone, it's function should be more important than how it's built... Which brings us back to why HTC is hurting - people are weary of giving it a second chance after being burned. It's gonna take time before they can earn people's trust.
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jrabbit2

Samsung is getting jealous because HTC is making some really nice phones, compared to their plastic crap. 4 generations already and nothing has changed, all they are can do is zerging out absurdly large screens its sickening. not to mention the poor build quality, the galaxy phones can twist and bend like a $2 toy, not to mention its ugly as heck, by comparison the htc one is leaps and bounds better than any Samsung crap ever existed. no wonder they are green with envy. all my friend's Samsung phones broke within the first 2 weeks, and they all returned for htc and nokia and has been happy with them since.
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