Samsung faces fines for throttling Galaxy gaming performance

Have you ever felt like your new smartphone didn’t live up to expectations? Manufacturers certainly promise the moon with each new generation, and inevitably, not everything that is promoted will land. Although this is not uncommon, how often do we see a phone maker face the consequences of overselling a device? This is rare, but we’re actually seeing it now for Samsung.

Today’s story actually started a few years ago, with one of those scandals that seems to keep coming up again and again: chip and game performance throttling. Sometimes, this is a case of a company trying to inflate records, but this case was actually the opposite. Back in the Galaxy S22 era, Samsung found itself in the hot seat for limiting performance to avoid overheating.

We’ve already heard about a class-action lawsuit filed by Galaxy owners in South Korea against the company, and now we know that Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) also fines Samsung over the incident (thanks: Dylan H).

The Korea Federal Trade Commission (KFTC) has imposed a fine of 20.1 billion won (about $15.1 million) on the Galaxy maker, citing exactly the same reasons it was sued: Samsung’s game optimization service will automatically run when you start playing some popular games, reducing the phone’s performance to up to 30% of what should be possible. As a result, gamers didn’t experience the “ultimate mobile gaming experience” that Samsung’s ads promised.

Given the size of Samsung’s operations, even $15 million represents little more than a slap on the wrist — but we’re still impressed that an advertising complaint gets this kind of attention and results in some actual consequences for the company.

according to Seoul Economic DailySamsung asserts that “no court has found that consumers were harmed by the ad.” Harm or not, we’re just glad Samsung finally gave Galaxy owners the option to disable the performance-killing game optimization service on their devices.