Samsung being investigated for dirty tricks...

[Wilkas]

.. against HTC. Got this little beauty on my Blinkfeed.

Samsung has been accused of hiring students to criticise rival HTC online.

The Korean tech giant is under investigation by the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission over allegations it paid interns to promote its products and post negative comments about the opposition.

The Commission launched the probe after receiving a complaint from HTC and trying to establish whether Samsung is guilty of false advertising, according to AFP.

Samsung has responded to the controversy with a statement putting the incident down to an "unfortunate" misunderstanding. The firm also said it has ceased all marketing that involves the posting of anonymous comments.

"Samsung Electronics remains committed to engaging in transparent and honest communications with consumers as outlined in the company's Online Communications Credo," read a Samsung statement issued to CNET.

"We have encouraged all Samsung Electronics employees worldwide to remain faithful to our Credo. The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles.

"Samsung Electronics Taiwan (SET) has ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments, and will ensure that all SET online marketing activities will be fully compliant with the company's Online Communications Credo.

"We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused. We will continue to reinforce education and training for our employees to prevent any future recurrence."

Samsung and the local advertising agency that set up the campaign could face fines of up to $835,000 if found guilty of false advertising.


After reading that review on Wired it makes me wonder where else they've been doing it

 

[EarlyMon]

This wasn't specific to the One, so I moved it to the Lounge.

Cheers, thanks!

 

[LoyalServant]

I have used a few Samsung devices and they were "okay"
HTC has made some mistakes but I have found them better personally.

The last Samsung device I had was the Galaxy Nexus.
The Verizon version was a -NIGHTMARE- and the GSM version was substantially better.

I have a One S sitting here and it's a decent device.
I was shocked to find the Nexus 4 to be a decent device as well despite being made by LG.
The One is getting rave reviews for build quality and I think that makes Samsung a bit nervous with the S4.

What remains to be seen is if the One takes any of the thunder away from the S4..

What does NOT surprise me is Samsung playing dirty....

 

[Speed Daemon]

Links? Citations? Anything?

 

[EarlyMon]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.b522392320b0ec3e136fb07e3db1f58c.5b1

Or this if the above is broken -

http://phys.org/news/2013-04-taiwan-probes-samsung-dirty-htc.html

 

[SiempreTuna]

What does NOT surprise me is Samsung playing dirty....

Quite. I know people who work for competitors and let's just say, it's not the first time I've heard that view

 

[Hadron]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.b522392320b0ec3e136fb07e3db1f58c.5b1

The level of fine described wouldn't be much of a disincentive if the technique works. The publicity would hurt more IMO.

Edit: meh, ninja'd again

 

[SkyJackpot]

Links? Citations? Anything?

Samsung under investigation for false advertising about HTC in Taiwan | The Verge

If it's true it's petty since they have nothing to prove at this point, although the HTC One does seem very impressive.

 

[Hadron]

Au contraire, they've set a very high sales target for the S4, considerably above what the S3 has sold so far. That's going to be their target, not just outselling others.

 

[Speed Daemon]

If it's true it's petty since they have nothing to prove at this point, although the HTC One does seem very impressive.

Well, that's nothing new. Samsung has become the whipping boy of choice for the biggest losers in the market. I expect Apple Inc. to express their sour grapes in the form of a lawsuit or baseless accusation. HTC seems to also think that this is a good idea, but at least in my case it's backfiring on them. I'm not going to buy a product from a company that gambles its profits on litigation and not R&D. I also don't believe that any business entity can own the IP on things you can do with an opposable thumb...

 

[Hadron]

There's nothing in that article about HTC litigating. It says that complaints were made to the regulatory authorities about deceptive marketing techniques. That's not at all the same thing.

The interesting thing is that if the report is accurate Samsung don't actually seem to be denying the substance, just claiming it was a "misunderstanding" (no details of what was misunderstood).

 

[SiempreTuna]

The interesting thing is that if the report is accurate Samsung don't actually seem to be denying the substance, just claiming it was a "misunderstanding" (no details of what was misunderstood).

Maybe they "understood" they wouldn't be caught?

 

[Speed Daemon]

There's nothing in that article about HTC litigating. It says that complaints were made to the regulatory authorities about deceptive marketing techniques. That's not at all the same thing.

Yes, that would fall under the category of accusations. (It remains to be seen if they are false or not.)

The interesting thing is that if the report is accurate Samsung don't actually seem to be denying the substance, just claiming it was a "misunderstanding" (no details of what was misunderstood).

Even more interesting, it doesn't say if the practice is illegal or otherwise forbidden. For all we know this could be the standard fare for marketing agencies around the world. I know as a fact that Apple did it with Guy Kawasaki and the EvangeList faxes that he sent out. Granted, those were "volunteers" for the most part. But Kawasaki got a mighty hefty paycheck! And Apple footed the bill for the fax machines and phone lines...

The bottom line here is whether it's another case of the pot calling the kettle black, or a valid complaint.

 

[EarlyMon]

When HTC has posted here, they've been up front about it and provided traceability so we knew that it was them. Likewise for a few other makers and suppliers.

We've had concerted efforts by shills and have shown them the door. They're disruptive and the practice is hard on our members, we don't go for it.

Hopefully this is not a standard practice for anyone.

 

[Hadron]

I agree that it's probably used by a lot of corporations. The fact that fines are specified would also suggest that what is alleged is illegal in Taiwan.

I've taken a quick glance at the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices (2005) and while I'm not a lawyer I'm pretty certain it would be illegal in the EU. Any form of astroturfing would come under the heading of "misleading omissions", since it would "Fail to identify the commercial intent of the commercial practice if not already apparent from the context". This would be true even if all of the information were factually correct (the directive is clear on that). I can see a few other clauses it would be likely to fall foul of too.

I guess the bottom line, whether these particular allegations here are upheld or not, is that you should keep your critical faculties engaged whenever you read a review, comment or forum post. And that's not a comment about any individual company.

 

[Speed Daemon]

That's good to know, thanks!

I don't have a clue about the laws here in the US, but after being flamed constantly by EvangeListas on the Yahoo! fora (circa late '90s), I will guess that any laws making it illegal in the US have long since gone away or are widely unenforced. (Astroturfing is absolutely legal for politicians at least.)

If I had been given the choice, I would have chosen to be without the nonstop harassment. But it was good for building a nice, thick skin!

 

[SiempreTuna]

(Astroturfing is absolutely legal for politicians at least.)

There's a lot that's legal for politicians but not the rest of us - one of the perks of making the rules

 

[EarlyMon]

LoL

Let's please tread lightly on political practices so as to keep the thread here, cheers, thanks!

BTW, speak of the devil -

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...c-one-getting-rave-reviews-2.html#post5743280

Now, I don't attribute that to Samsung.

But I will note that it's rather possible that not all was as it seemed there.

Ours is a lush garden and a great many things grow here.

PS to SD - go easy on me for not marking unix properly, thank you.

 

[SiempreTuna]

Quite

Some interesting detective work with those images ..

 

[LoyalServant]

When HTC has posted here, they've been up front about it and provided traceability so we knew that it was them. Likewise for a few other makers and suppliers.

We've had concerted efforts by shills and have shown them the door. They're disruptive and the practice is hard on our members, we don't go for it.

Hopefully this is not a standard practice for anyone.

Shills.. on these forums?
I can't say I am surprised by this but at the same time it is troubling.

What ever happened to the times where good products sold themselves?
If you made a better widget than acme people bought it and acme was forced to make a better widget and so forth...

I guess I am still stuck in the old days

 

[Speed Daemon]

BTW, speak of the devil -

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...c-one-getting-rave-reviews-2.html#post5743280

Now, I don't attribute that to Samsung.

That's interesting, thanks for the info!

I chose my Galaxy S2 mainly because I read that Google had switched from HTC to Samsung for its reference platform. That was my first Android phone, and I had to jump in somewhere. Whenever the time is right to lose Sprint as my carrier, I'm going to need a new phone, so I'm shopping. Although I have no complaints about my S2, I'll probably go with another brand. I'm leaning towards Motorola for various reasons. I particularly like the physical ergonomics, where the USB and HDMI ports are placed, and having a "real" HDMI port.

I hadn't intended to look at HTC. To me it's still "that company that made the Winphone in that old TV show." But I am a sucker for real metal cases, and the idea of a full HD display is a very big deal for me! Its reported ability to work on the largely abandoned 4.8GHz Wi-Fi band is another plus. The 2.4GHz band is overcrowded.

The big question is "when is it coming out?"

PS to SD - go easy on me for not marking unix properly, thank you.

I pick my battles wisely...or in other words my personal sloth wins out here. But when you least expect it, The Trademark Nazi

 

[SiempreTuna]

I hadn't intended to look at HTC. To me it's still "that company that made the Winphone in that old TV show." But I am a sucker for real metal cases, and the idea of a full HD display is a very big deal for me! Its reported ability to work on the largely abandoned 4.8GHz Wi-Fi band is another plus. The 2.4GHz band is overcrowded.

I'm not going to be changing my phone anytime soon, but I have to say the new One looks pretty awesome. If I was in the market, I'd definitely have it on my wish list.

The big question is "when is it coming out?"

April 24 .. Oh, sorry! You mean the US release? No idea.

 

[Speed Daemon]

April 24 .. Oh, sorry! You mean the US release? No idea.

DRAT!!! Foiled again...

OTOH I'll be happy to let the international release find all the bugs before I get my US version.

 

[Speed Daemon]

Looks like it's only going to be available for Sprint and T-Mobile, the two carriers with no service where I need it. Back to the drawing board for me...

 

[Hadron]

It's out on ATT too.

No news on Verizon though.