Samsung was sued a few years ago after falsifying the results of the benchmarks, performance tests, that the Samsung GALAXY S4 had for users who used this phone model. A long time after this phone model became history, Samsung is the first company, if I'm not mistaken, that obliged to pay compensation to customers because of this practice.
Samsung used a special software to detect when a benchmarking application was running on the phone, and artificially increased the working frequency of the processor to make the result as high as possible. Ironically, Huawei and many other Chinese manufacturers have admitted that they mint in an identical way all the clients, but since no one sued them, Samsung is the only one who will pay, 13.4 million dollars if we are to be exact.
Samsung Pays COMPENSATION for Falsifying Benchmarks
Samsung artificially increased the working frequency of the processors of the Samsung GALAXY S4 phones from 480 MHz to 532 MHz, so by more than 10%, lying to some customers that they will have the same experience. Samsung did not deny the practice, but had its lawyers get rid of it from the trial, but when the trial reached the US Supreme Court, the company finally decided to conclude an agreement to end this long trial.
“Samsung has agreed to pay its Galaxy S4 buyers about $10 each for alleged cheating on benchmark tests. The mobile giant settled [PDF] a long-running class action lawsuit for $13,4 million (two and a half hours' worth), with $2,8 million in a settlement fund and $10,6 million in aid. The lawyers will receive $1,5 million (about 11 percent) for the years they prosecuted the company.”
Samsung defended itself in the process saying that it was not obliged to disclose that it was lying to its customers, and that only possible security problems had to be disclosed to the general public. After three years of defenses of this kind, Samsung will have to pay 10 dollars for each Samsung GALAXY S4 phone owner, for a total of 13.4 million, a small amount, but the principle is the one that matters in this whole dispute.
The victory is a very small one, but it remains a victory, and a signal that phone manufacturers should not lie to their customers in such a way.
