Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has slammed South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) for what it said was “discrimination” against China consumers in its handling of a global recall of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to replace batteries.<\/p>\n
In a commentary piece posted on its website on Thursday evening, CCTV said Samsung’s behavior in China after the Sept. 2 recall of 2.5 million phones was “full of arrogance”.<\/p>\n
CCTV said a video apology Samsung issued to U.S. consumers, along with various replacement options and compensation, was in stark contrast to its treatment of those in China, where the company issued a brief statement saying most phones didn’t need to be replaced. “Samsung’s discriminatory policy has caused discontent from Chinese consumers,” it said.<\/p>\n
Samsung China didn’t immediately responded to requests for comment on the CCTV criticism.<\/p>\n
The CCTV criticism may provide an unwelcome distraction for Samsung as seeks to bolster its position in the world’s largest smartphone market. Once the number 1 mobile phone vendor in China, Samsung dropped out of top 5 in 2015, hit by the strong growth of domestic brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo.<\/p>\n
A number of big-name global consumer brands have fallen foul of the influential broadcaster’s blasts in recent years, prompting firms from German automaker Volkswagen AG VOWG_p.de to Samsung rival Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to undertake strenuous efforts to bolster their image.<\/p>\n
Earlier in September, after a meeting with China’s quality safety watchdog, Samsung China issued a brief statement saying 1,858 Note 7 devices sold in the country as part of a test scheme before the official launch would be recalled.<\/p>\n
Most Note 7s on sale in China have batteries from a different supplier and are not part of its global recall of 2.5 million phones announced on September 2, Samsung said.<\/p>\n
But after anecdotal reports of a handful of Note 7s catching fire in the mainland, Samsung China issued a statement on Thursday apologizing to Chinese consumers for a “lack of sufficient explanation” on what it said were safe Note 7 phones in China.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has slammed South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) for what it said was “discrimination” against China consumers in its handling of a global recall of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to replace batteries. In a commentary piece posted on its website on Thursday evening, CCTV said Samsung’s behavior in China […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":253627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[12183,8864,205],"yoast_head":"\n