“Fair-trade officials in Taiwan are looking into reports that Samsung paid people to criticise rival HTC online,” BBC News reports. “Samsung is alleged to have hired students to post negative comments about phones made by Taiwan’s HTC.”
“If found guilty of engaging in “false advertising”, Samsung and its local agent could face fines of up to of 25m Taiwanese dollars (£547,000),” The Beeb reports. “Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission had begun an investigation after receiving a series of complaints, a spokesman told the AFP news agency.”
The Beeb reports, “A local website had published documents appearing to show Samsung had been recruiting students to criticise HTC and praise Samsung anonymously on the web, reported PC Advisor. Samsung Taiwan said it had not been told about the investigation, however the subsidiary put a statement on its local Facebook page saying it had ‘ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Michael Kan reports for PC Advisor, “The investigation occurs after a local site, called TaiwanSamsungLeaks, accused the South Korean company of “evil marketing” for covertly criticizing rival products through anonymous Internet users. As evidence, the site published documents allegedly from Samsung’s hired marketing firm cataloguing the different forum posts it made last year on local gadget sites.”
“The topics covered included a user complaining that his girlfriend’s HTC One X phone was constantly crashing, and how Samsung’s Galaxy Note phone was superior to HTC’s Sensation XL handset,” Kan reports.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t call them Samscum for nothing.
Don’t buy products from morally bankrupt filth.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
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Korea JoongAng Daily: Samsung must stop slavishly copying Apple – September 3, 2012
South Korea reassesses its great imitator, Samsung – September 2, 2012
Convicted patent infringer Samsung acuses Apple of trying to limit consumer choice – September 1, 2012
Is Samsung copying Apple’s patented earphones? It sure looks like it – September 8, 2012
Samsung mimics Apple product videos in Galaxy S III promo (with video) – August 24, 2012
Now slavish copycat Samsung attempts to knockoff Apple’s retail stores (with video) – August 23, 2012
Samsung: Shameless slavish copiers – August 13, 2012
Apple attorney: Instead of innovating, Samsung chose to copy iPhone and iPad – July 31, 2012
Apple: Google warned Samsung against slavishly copying our products – July 25, 2012
Now Samsung slavishly copies Apple’s Mac mini – June 1, 2012
Samsung Mobile chief ‘designer’ denies that Samsung’s instinct is to slavishly copy Apple – March 23, 2012
Slavish copier Samsung shamelessly steals Apple’s iPhone 3G design – again – January 3, 2012
Slavish copier Samsung uses girl actress from iPhone 4S ad for Galaxy Tab 8.9 spot (with video) – January 2, 2012
Now Samsung’s slavishly copying Apple’s iPad television ads (with videos) – December 30, 2011
Judge: Can you tell me which is iPad and which is yours? Samsung lawyer: ‘Not at this distance your honor’ – October 14, 2011
Why are Apple’s icons on the wall of Samsung’s store? – September 24, 2011
Apple to Samsung: ‘Blatant copying is wrong’ – April 18, 2011
Apple sues Samsung for attempting to copy look and feel of iPhone, iPad – April 18, 2011
Samsung’s ‘Instinct’ is obviously to make Apple iPhone knockoffs – April 1, 2008
Spot the Samscum at MDN…
edward et al.
The list of hired Samsung hit-trolls here at MDN is quite long.
Samsung:
Shameless.
Incapable of competing.
Resorting to cheating.
Looking for suckers…
Boycott Samdung products
Boycott? Really? I don’t buy them – because they are third rate quality products, as you would expect from a company with such a rich and long-standing track record of dishonest, shonky business practices. Boycotting them would be to give them far too much credibility.
Samsuck really messes with my zen thing, man!
Really, “A local website had published documents appearing to show Samsung had been recruiting students to criticise HTC and praise Samsung”. When do you think they will find the documents that they are manipulating MadMoney, Bloomberg, … Oh, they call that advertising dollars Timmy and the Apple board.
I think Apple’s agency of record has been telling them not to stoop to Samsung’s level, otherwise there would be a lot more focused rhetoric defending Apple.
They’ve been doing this in the US for years, it’s just sad that no one in the US is investigating them.
no Apple content.
Paying someone to wright a review is illegal? As long as they didn’t wright blatant lies and only “opinions” then how can Samdung get into trouble?
That definition would make Enderle of “The Enderle Group” in violation of the law, as well. He has been a paid Microsoft shill for many years.
Even the maximum possible fine is unlikely to be a meaningful deterrent to Samsung. Less than USD$1M? Samsung will consider the FUD that was distributed during this campaign well worth the price. After all, FUD is the gift that keeps on giving. Some people will continue quoting erroneous information for years without ever stopping to verify its veracity, especially if the information was provided by a peer.
Exactly, any fines they have to pay for this are part of their advertising budget.
wright? what are you, the dumbest motherfucker in the world?
Write?rite?wright brothers?
Potty mouth. D’you kiss your momma with that mouth?
no, I kiss yo’ momma.
Then I guess I better not tell you what his momma did for me.
lol
touché…I got nothin’.
Oops last time I make a late night post. 🙂
lol, jokin’ ya.
All they need was to be able to wright. They paid them with a couple of dog burgers.
Maybe on some level people who buy Samsung products deserve Samsung products and everything is as it should be.
I guess Edward won’t be posting quite as often.
“We don’t call them Samscum for nothing.”
Samdung
Note to North Korea Military… Have you input the coordinate of Samf_ck HQ in Seoul into your not-so-functioning missile system yet?
Can someone please post Samf_ck’s Korean executives’ home address in US??
Samesung has really affected me in a negative way. I actually despise them. And sadly, I look down at people who use Samesumg phones. Literally, I judge them as ignorant or lacking character.
Does this mean that “edward” won’t be joining us any longer?
The only ones surprised by this are the iHaters and tech clueless people. Oh that includes the news writers who thinks they are real journalist!
Can you say astroturf? That fine is a joke. Cost of doing business.
WHAT? ScamScum HIRE people to FUD their rivals? Instead of actually COMPETING?!
Yes! I’ve joyfully trampled quite a few PAID ShameScam trolls right here at MDN. And if you take a look, you’ll find them COWARDLY, ANONYMOUSLY continuing to spew here at MDN this very day.
FSCK -U Samsung!
These are moves if desperation.
It’s easy to get to the top, it’s very hard to stay there. Samsung… Ehum Goosung, ships more smart phones than anyone right now and they can only fall from here. They are desperate in continuing to grow. And the fine should be £547,000,000 instead.