An investigation has been launched by the Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission, to verify the charges against the Korean tech giant Samsung regarding the online attack to the local rival HTC. The company can face a fine up to $835,000 if the charges are proved to be true. According to the allegations of the internet users, Samsung paid a group of students to write online articles and malicious comments attacking the Smartphone from HTC and recommending Samsung mobiles instead.
Sun Lih-chyun, Fair Trade Commission spokesperson, told AFP that the commission has set up the case in the last week after receiving complaints. But, according to the Samsung officials, the company has not yet been informed about the case by the Trade Commission. Whereas the Facebook page of SamsungTaiwan already has the message that it regrets the confusion and inconvenience caused by the event. The Facebook post also says that the company has ceased its internet marketing wing that included posting articles and comments on the Web.
According to Taiwan’s state Central News Agency, this is not the first time that the company is on a tough ride with the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission regarding its business procedure; in the month of January, this year, the giant was fined NTD $300,000 for a misleading advertisement of the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos GT-S6012 handset. In the advertisements, both online and the ones published in the catalogues, it was clearly indicated that the handset has flash functions and automatic focus, whereas, in reality, the handset had none of the two. And just in the last fall, the joint venture of Samsung and Toshiba, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology, was fined by the same authority for fixing prices of the optical drives.
According to reports from IDC, in the Global Smartphone Market, Samsung holds the leading position with 30.3 per cent market share, whereas Apple holds 19.1 per cent of the market share and HTC trails with 4.6 per cent. It is noteworthy that HTC is already struggling with slumped sales due to the late shipment of the HTC One Smartphones, and at the present situation a negative market report can be really harmful for its image and future sales.