ICYMI: An Australian court has imposed heavy penalties on Samsung for misleading consumers about the water resistance capabilities of its phones.
Australian Federal Court Justice Brendan Murphy has ordered Samsung Electronics Australia to pay 14 million Australian dollars within 30 days and an additional AU$200,000 for the cost incurred by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which started theSamsung is not fighting the claim and has agreed to pay the fine.
About 3.1 million units of the vulnerable smartphones were sold in Australia, including some that were theat that time, but it's not clear how many customers had their charging ports damaged. Commission Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said that her team had received hundreds of complaints from disgruntled owners. In some cases, the phones stopped working altogether.
An unknown number of affected customers went to Samsung for repairs. While some got it done for free, others had to pay between AU$180 and AU$245 to get the job done, the court learned. Samsung said the issue only affected the seven models that were released between 2016 and 2017 and does not affect its current phones. The company lawyers had initially denied that the company had misled consumers and that the handsets could be impacted because of immersion in water.Judge Murphy called out Samsung for not cooperating with the investigation, but Samsung disputes that. The investigation initially included 15 smartphone models and over 600 ads.
Samsung endeavours to deliver the best possible experience to all our customers and we regret that a small number of our Galaxy users experienced an issue with their device pertaining to this matter." - Samsung said.Get the most important news, reviews and deals in mobile tech delivered straight to your inbox