Samsung is no stranger to threatening the tech media – remember, they threatened to leave two bloggers in Berlin because they refused to promote their products at IFA in 2012. Well, the South Korean company is now suing a Korean newspaper, the Electronic Times, after it wrote a negative news article about the Galaxy S5.
The article, published on March 17, claimed that Samsung was having issues with producing the six lenses for the GS5’s camera. Engineers were forced to produce thinner lenses to maintain the phone’s shape. However, it is very hard to produce lenses without flaws, and as such – as the rumour points out – yield rates are down to around 20-30%. Samsung is also alleged to have kept employees almost full-time to ensure that the Galaxy S5 is not hit with delays.
However, Samsung took issue with that article and is now taking the matter to South Korea’s Press Arbitration Commission. According to Media Today (machine translation) is suing the Electronic Times for 300 million won (USD$284,000) in damages, and calls the claims made by the report as false. It is also worried that the news article will affect sales of the Galaxy S5 and “adversely affect” the company’s image.
Samsung taking the matter to court is very unusual – normally companies tend to respond to negative articles with their own response rejecting the report, ignoring them, or issue a “no comment”. It could also set a very dangerous precedent where tech sites don’t publish claims that put a company in a negative light because they fear litigation.
All I can say is that I will be interested in seeing how this all plays out – because I like not being a sycophant.
via PocketNow