Samsung Paid Commenters to Write Negative HTC Reviews

You wouldn’t think that Samsung would need any illicit assistance in competing against HTC: Samsung is the 800-pound gorilla of the smartphone industry, controlling nearly a third of the global market, while HTC has suffered a dramatic plunge in its market share and stock price.

But Samsung executives in Taiwan, HTC’s home country, were still concerned enough that the company’s local marketing agencies hired students in April to write anonymous Web comments praising Samsung and disparaging HTC. In response, Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission slapped a T$10 million ($341,300) fine on Samsung on Thursday, along with a smaller fine for two of its marketing agencies. “This is the first case of its kind in Taiwan that a company has concealed its genuine status while attacking a rival,” commission spokesman Sun Lih-chyun told AFP. Samsung has also been accused of offering payments to Android developers Read more...