Issue Date: May 15, 2013
Fair-trade officials in Taiwan are probing reports that Samsung paid people to criticise rival HTC online. Samsung is alleged to have hired students to post negative comments about phones made by Taiwan’s company HTC. If found guilty of engaging in “false advertising”, Samsung could face a fine of up to of US $400,000. A Taiwanese website had published documents that showed Samsung recruiting students to criticise HTC and praise Samsung. Samsung Taiwan said it had not been told about the investigation.