Samsung Electronics has been facing charges in Australia for apparently misleading its customers regarding one of its features on its Galaxy smartphones. And now, the company will be required to pay millions of US Dollars.
For those unaware, the Australian Federal Court Justice Brendan Murphy had ordered the South Korean tech giant to 14 million Australian Dollars (roughly 9.8 million US Dollars) within 30 days. Furthermore, the brand will have to pay an additional 140,000 US Dollars for the cost faced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which had began the investigation four years ago. The company faced the fine for misleading its smartphone customers regarding the water resistance claims for its Galaxy handsets.
These false claims were made regarding water resistance on seven Galaxy phones that were aired in 9 advertisements between the years 2016 and 2018. The models in these ads includes the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, and Galaxy Note 8. As of right now, the smartphone maker is not disputing these charges and has also agreed to pay the penalty amount as well.
The reason for the fines are due to Samsung showing its smartphones being using in swimming pools and seawater. However, these models were only water resistant not water proofed and would not have been able to withstand these conditions in real world situations. Furthermore, one scene even showed them charging after being wet, which in reality would’ve damaged the charging ports of these smartphones.
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