Samsung Fined NT$10 Million Over Smear Campaign Against HTC

Given that both HTC and Samsung are rivals in terms of the Android smartphone market, it is not surprising that both companies have taken swings at one another and while we can appreciate clever ads, smearing your rivals is a different story. Earlier this year Taiwan’s FTC was investigating Samsung over reports of the South Korean tech company launching smear campaigns that targeted HTC. Well the verdict is in and bad news for Samsung is that the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission has decided that Samsung is guilty and that they were found to be “in violation of fair trade rules”.

The punishment is a fine of NT$10 million which is about $340,421 when converted, a rather hefty fine but still substantially less than $1 billion in damages they were ordered to pay Apple, which has since been heavily contested. The marketing companies involved in Samsung’s smear campaign were also fined for their participation and were fined NT$3 million ($102,130) and NT$50,000 ($1,702) respectively. We’re not sure if Samsung plans to contest this ruling since by not doing so, it would make them look guilty, but for now this is the price that Samsung and their hired marketing agencies will have to pay.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: HTC, Legal, Samsung