Samsung and HTC have been mortal enemies for a while, which is a bit David and Goliath, given the size of Samsung, but it looks like Samsung have turned the war dirty.
Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission launched an investigation in to reports that Samsung had paid bloggers to bad mouth HTC products, as well as praising Samsungs. The practice is illegal in Taiwan, with the FTC able to levy large fines and it appears the investigation will be open and shut, as Samsung have now admitted the charge.
This is not the first time Samsung Taiwan has been involved in dodgy practices and been penalised by the regulator, including being fined for false advertising over the Galaxy Y Duo’s camera.
It all seems very bad form by Samsung, who not only dwarf HTC in company size, but have an infinitely larger marketing budget as well. Surely they could have put that to good use, rather than a few cheap, dirty tricks?
I really can’t understand what motivates these companies to resort to such underhanded practices. Anti-competitiveness is not good for anybody in the long-run, especially us consumers. This news has definitely steered me away from buying anything Samsung.