Samsung faces legal action over bloatware in China

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By Larry Banks

Korean electronics giant and smartphone maker Samsung is being taken to court in China as a result of software that it puts onto its phones. A Chinese consumer protection group launched the action of the default pro-loaded apps (often called bloatware) found on the company’s devices.

The group said many people did not want the software and said that the firm made it hard to remove the apps. The Shanghai Consumer Council has also filed a similar case against Chinese phone company Oppo.

Samsung bloatware

The council said that it was prompted to start legal action after increasing numbers of complaints about the apps pre-installed by Samsung. Apparently people complained because of the space the apps took up and also because they ate into users’ data allowances when they were updated.

Results from a study carried out by the council said that a regular Galaxy Note 3 could contain 44 pre-installed apps that could not be removed or were hard to disable. An Oppo phone tested by the council was said to have 47 apps that could not be uninstalled.

“The litigation is our latest attempt to safeguard consumers’ rights after other methods failed”, Tao Ailian, secretary general of the council, told newspaper the Shanghai Daily.

The legal action wants to make Oppo and Samsung put in place a method for people to remove the apps and warn them about what they get when they purchase a new phone.

In a statement, Samsung responded: “We have not yet received the formal complaint filed by the Shanghai Consumer Council. We will thoroughly review the court document and determine an appropriate response”, it said.

SOURCE: BBC.

Images Courtesy of DepositPhotos

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