Samsung has been penalized by Australia for misleading consumers about the water resistance of its Galaxy smartphones. Reportedly, now the news came, where it is disclosed that Samsung has been charged and penalized by Australian Federal Court for misleading its consumers about the water resistance of its Galaxy smartphones.
Penalty Amount
It has been ordered Samsung Electronics Australia, to pay 14 million Australian dollars which comes to around ($9.8 million) within 30 days by Australian Federal Court Justice Brendan Murphy. The court also ordered to pay an additional amount of AU$200,000 ($140,000) for the cost incurred by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The commission started the investigation four years back from now.
Also, it is said that Samsung is not fighting against the penalized claim and has agreed to pay the fine of said amount.
Penalty Concern
The reason for these fined charges, is said to have made false claims about the water resistance feature of its seven Galaxy smartphones in nine advertisements circulating between the years 2016 to 2018, The mobile phones including the S7, S7 Edge, A5 (2017), A7 (2017), S8, S8 Plus and Note 8, reports ABC News.
Whereas the ads had said that their phones could be used in swimming pools and seawater, although in reality, they were not that water resistant and charging them in wet conditions could have damaged the charging ports. It is estimated that about 3.1 million units of vulnerable smartphones were sold in Australia alone.
Also, notice that including some of these devices were the best phones at that time. Although it’s not clear yet how many customers had their charging ports damaged as a part of this concern.
On the other hand, Commission Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has said that her team had received hundreds of complaints from dissatisfied owners. In some cases, the phones stopped working altogether. Numbers still the of affected customers who went to Samsung for repairs. However, some parts got it done for free, whereas others had to pay between AU$180 ($126) and AU$245 ($171) to get the job done, the court learned.
On the said issue, Samsung said this only affected the seven models which were released between 2016 and 2017 and do not affect its current phones. Though the company lawyers initially not admitted the concern and denied the fact that the company had misled its consumers. They were justified by saying that the handsets could be impacted because of immersion in water.
Unfortunately, the penalty imposed exceeded Samsung’s margin by the time when those ads were run.
Judge Murphy called out Samsung for not confederation with this investigation. The report says, the investigation initially included 15 smartphone models and over 600 ads.
Samsung endeavours to deliver the best possible experience to all our customers and we regret that a small number of our Galaxy users experienced an issue with their device pertaining to this matter.” – Samsung said.