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Samsung admits its employees anonymously slated HTC phones online

Rivalry between tech brands is nothing new, but recently things have been getting rather heated between two of the big names in the mobile industry; Samsung and HTC. This week Samsung that its staff have been anonymously posting reviews and bad comments online that paint HTC phones in a negative light.

Earlier in the week allegations were made against the Korean tech giant after documents containing forum posts about HTC products were leaked online. The source of these documents? A marketing firm used by Samsung. It seemed obvious that Samsung was behind some staged reviews and posts that were both making its rival look bad and making its own products look great.

It would appear that Samsung did not have a company policy that prevented its employees from posting anonymously about its own or its rival’s products online, or its employees were not fully understanding it when making their posts on various forums online. The company has now issued an official statement and apology regarding the whole fiasco, blaming “insufficient understanding” of some fundamental principles.

Samsung Electronics Taiwan (SET) has ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments, and will ensure that all SET online marketing activities will be fully compliant with the company’s Online Communications Credo.”

It’s a strange move for a company the size of Samsung to pull. Thanks to the popularity of its Galaxy range of Android smartphones it has become bigger than HTC, although the two companies’ recent flagship smartphones are about to go head to head in the market. There has been talk of Samsung being concerned about the build quality of its new Galaxy S4 when compared to the HTC One – which is something we noted in our hands-on review of the S4 – although this is likely to be media rumour-mongering.

Samsung may well be in line for a hefty fine from the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission for its actions, and of course HTC could also take action against the company. You can read the full statement from Samsung below.

[spoiler]Samsung Electronics remains committed to engaging in transparent and honest communications with consumers as outlined in the company’s Online Communications Credo. We have encouraged all Samsung Electronics employees worldwide to remain faithful to our Credo.
The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles.

Samsung Electronics Taiwan (SET) has ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments, and will ensure that all SET online marketing activities will be fully compliant with the company’s Online Communications Credo.

We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused. We will continue to reinforce education and training for our employees to prevent any future recurrence.[/spoiler]