Litigation and safety issues

Worker safetyedit

Many employees working in Samsung's semiconductor facilities have developed various forms of cancers.citation needed Initially, Samsung denied being responsible for the illnesses. Although Samsung is known to disfavor trade unions, these sick workers organized in the group SHARPS (Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry). The crowdfunded film Another Promise was produced in 2013 to depict the fight for compensation of the victims, as well as the documentary The Empire of Shame. In May 2014, Samsung offered an apology and compensation to workers who became ill. The company subsequently did not follow all the recommendations of a specially appointed mediation committee, paid several families outside of a scheme to be agreed on and required them to drop all further charges, prompting SHARPS to continue legal and public action. The quarrel was mostly resolved upon a public apology issued by Samsung in November 2018.

DRAM price fixingedit

In December 2010, the European Commission fined six LCD panel producers, including Samsung, a total of €648,925 million for operating as a cartel. The company received a full reduction of the potential fine for being the first firm to assist EU anti-trust authorities.

On 19 October 2011, Samsung was fined €145.73 million for being part of a price cartel of ten companies for DRAMs, which lasted from 1 July 1998 to 15 June 2002. Like most of the other members of the cartel, the company received a 10% reduction for acknowledging the facts to investigators. Samsung had to pay 90% of their share of the settlement, but Micron avoided payment as a result of having initially revealed the case to investigators. Micron remains the only company that avoided all payments from reduction under the settlement notice.

In Canada, the price fix was investigated in 2002. A recession started to occur that year, and the price fix ended. However, in 2014, the Canadian government reopened the case and investigated silently after the EU's success. Sufficient evidence was found and presented to Samsung and two other manufacturers during a class action lawsuit hearing. The companies agreed upon a $120 million agreement, with $40 million as a fine, and $80 million to be paid back to Canadian citizens who purchased a computer, printer, MP3 player, gaming console or camera between April 1999 and June 2002.

Apple lawsuitedit

On 15 April 2011, Apple sued Samsung in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that several of Samsung's Android phones and tablets, including the Nexus S, Epic 4G, Galaxy S 4G, and Galaxy Tab, infringed on Apple's intellectual property: its patents, trademarks, user interface and style. Apple's complaint included specific federal claims for patent infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition, and trademark infringement, as well as state-level claims for unfair competition, common law trademark infringement, and unjust enrichment.

On 24 August 2012, the jury returned a verdict largely favorable to Apple. It found that Samsung had willfully infringed on Apple's design and utility patents, and had also diluted Apple's trade dresses related to the iPhone. The jury awarded Apple $1.049 billion in damages and Samsung zero damages in its countersuit. The jury found that Samsung infringed Apple's patents on iPhone's "Bounce-Back Effect" (US Patent No.7,469,381), "On-screen Navigation" (US Patent No.7,844,915), and "Tap To Zoom" (US Patent No.7,864,163), and design patents that cover iPhone's features such as the "home button, rounded corners and tapered edges" (US D593087) and "On-Screen Icons" (US D604305).

Product safetyedit

Despite their phones' popularity, numerous explosions of them have been reported. A Swiss teenager was left with second and third degree burns in her thigh due to her Galaxy S3's explosion, followed by two more Galaxy S3 explosions in Switzerland and Ireland. A South Korean student's Galaxy S2 battery exploded in 2012.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 also led to several accidents. A house in Hong Kong was allegedly set on fire by an S4 in July 2013, followed by minor S4 burn incidents in Pakistan and Russia. A minor fire was also reported in Newbury, United Kingdom in October 2013.

Some users of the phone have also reported swelling batteries and overheating; Samsung has offered affected customers new batteries, free of charge. In December 2013, a Canadian uploaded a YouTube video describing his S4 combusting. Samsung then asked the uploader to sign a legal document requiring him to remove the video, remain silent about the agreement, and surrender any future claims against the company to receive a replacement. No further response from Samsung was received afterwards. There were a few more reported Galaxy S4 explosions in India and the UAE.

Galaxy Note 7edit

On 31 August 2016, it was reported that Samsung was delaying shipments of the Galaxy Note 7 in some regions to perform "additional tests being conducted for product quality"; this came alongside user reports of batteries exploding while charging. On 2 September, Samsung suspended sales of the Note 7 and announced a worldwide "product exchange program" in which customers would be able to exchange their Note 7 for another Note 7, a Galaxy S7, or an S7 Edge (the price difference being refunded). They would also receive a gift card from a participating carrier. On 1 September, the company released a statement saying it had received 35 reports of battery failure, which, according to an unnamed Samsung official, "account for less than 0.2 percent of the entire volume sold". Although it has been referred to as a product recall by the media, it was not an official government-issued recall by an organization such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and only a voluntary measure. The CPSC did issue an official recall notice on 15 September 2016, and stated that Samsung received at least 92 reports of the batteries overheating in the U.S., including 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage.

After some replacement Note 7 phones also caught fire, Samsung announced on 11 October 2016 that it would permanently end production of the Note 7 in the interest of customer safety. However, Samsung was hoping to recover from the lost sales from the Note 7 with the introduction of new colors such as the Blue Coral and Black Pearl color for the Galaxy S7 edge.

On 14 October 2016, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration banned the Note 7 from being taken aboard any airline flight, even if powered off. Qantas, Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines also banned the carriage of Note 7s on their aircraft with effect from midnight on 15 October. Mexico's largest airlines Aeromexico, Interjet, Volaris and VivaAerobus all banned the handset.

Washing machinesedit

On 4 November 2016, Samsung recalled 2.8 million top-load washing machines sold at home appliance stores between 2011 and 2016 because the machine's top could unexpectedly detach from the chassis during use that could be caused by excessive vibration.

Advertisements on smart televisionsedit

In 2015, users on the website Reddit began reporting that some Samsung Smart TVs would display advertisements for Pepsi products during movies when viewed through the Plex application. Plex denied responsibility for the ads and Samsung told blog Gigaom that they were investigating the matter.

In March 2016, soccer star Pelé filed a lawsuit against Samsung in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seeking $30 million in damages, claiming violations under the Lanham Act for false endorsement and a state law claim for violation of his right of publicity. The suit alleged that, at one point, Samsung and Pelé came close to entering into a licensing agreement for Pelé to appear in a Samsung advertising campaign; Samsung abruptly pulled out of the negotiations. The October 2015 Samsung ad in question included a partial face shot of a man who allegedly "very closely resembles" Pelé, and also a superimposed ultra-high-definition television screen next to the image of the man featuring a "modified bicycle or scissors-kick", perfected and famously used by Pelé.

In December 2016, Samsung forced an update to their Smart TV line, which resulted in advertisements being displayed in menus on the updated devices.

Viral marketingedit

On 1 April 2013, several documents were shown on TaiwanSamsungLeaks.org saying that the advertising company OpenTide (Taiwan) and its parent company Samsung were hiring students to attack its competitors by spreading harmful comments and biased opinions/reviews about the products of other phone manufacturers, such as Sony and HTC, in several famous forums and websites in Taiwan to improve its brand image. Hacker "0xb", the uploader of the documents, said that they were intercepted from an email between OpenTide and Samsung. Four days later, the Taiwan division of Samsung Electronics made an announcement stating it would "stop all online marketing strategies which involves publishing and replying in online forums". It was widely reported by the Taiwanese media. Taiwan later fined Samsung Electronics for the smear campaign.