Samsung will pay a $9.8 million fine because of deceptive ads for 7(!) of its smartphones

Samsung, after a lawsuit in Australia, has agreed to pay a fairly large fine because of ads that misled users.

What we know

The manufacturer was accused of making false claims about the water resistance of seven Galaxy phones in nine ads between 2016 and 2018. The models in question were the S7, S7 Edge, A5 (2017), A7 (2017), S8, S8 Plus and Note 8.

The ads said those gadgets could be used in swimming pools and seawater, though they could actually cause charging problems after that. As a result, there were hundreds of complaints from dissatisfied users, and some of them had phones that stopped working altogether after water procedures. An unknown number of affected customers turned to Samsung for repairs. Some did so for free, but many had to pay between $125 to $170.

The original investigation included 15 smartphone models and more than 600 advertisements. But Samsung said the problem affected only 7 models released between 2016 and 2017 and did not affect current phones.

As a result, the manufacturer will have to pay $9.8 million within 30 days and additionally $140,000 to cover the costs incurred by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for the 4-year investigation. The fine imposed exceeded Samsung's profits for the time the ad was shown.

Source: Phonearena