In April 2013, the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission started investigating allegations that Samsung hired marketing firms to post negative comments about competitors. Samsung hired students to make comments about the Galaxy S4 and HTC. Samsung also had employees engage in this practice, making the act harder to hide.
The Legal Fallout
The Taiwanese FTC found that Samsung did more than pay people to make false complaints and online comments about HTC
. Samsung also sought to minimize negative reviews of its own comments, generate false positive reviews of its own products, and post general positive comments about Samsung. The Taiwan FTC fined Samsung ten million New Taiwan dollars or $340,000. The fine could have been as high as $835,000. The two marketing companies Samsung hired were fined an additional $100,000.
Samsung’s Other Misbehavior
The Taiwan FTC also fined Samsung earlier in 2013 for misleading advertising about its Galaxy Y Duos phone and its camera functions. Samsung’s astroturfing is not new. Other companies have hired marketing firms to do the same. What makes Samsung’s latest case unique is the fact that it was recently slapped because its marketer offered developers on Stack Overflow to promote Samsung.
Long Term Impact
HTC has suffered a drop in global market share down to 2.6 percent of the handset market. This is a dramatic fall form its high of 10.3 percent back in 2011. The ongoing revelations of Samsung’s false negative reviews have done little to nothing to hurt Samsung’s sales nor yield a serious financial repercussion. Even a three million dollar fine would have little impact on a company that earned $9.4 billion in profits in the third quarter of 2013.
Does the fact that it was given a mere slap on the wrist for nearly destroying a rival mean Samsung will Astroturf again in the future? What do you think?
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi 
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