The rivalry between South Korea’s two leading tech companies has just got a little bit silly. Samsung has accused LG executives of deliberately damaging its products.
According to Samsung, a number of LG executives were spotted vandalising a range of its washing machines in a selection of Berlin-based stores during the course of IFA 2014 earlier this month.
Although it is unclear exactly how the machines came to harm (we would like to think a massive tantrum and a rolling pin was involved), it has been suggested the damage was aimed at the hinges of the Samsung machines.
While LG has admitted that some Samsung machines were broken as company personnel looked at them, it has suggested that the damage was caused by weak components, not excessive force – it wasn’t us guv’.
The argument has escalated to the point where the Germany authorities have been involved.
"It is very unfortunate that Samsung had to request that a high-ranking executive be investigated by the nation's legal authorities, but this was inevitable, as we concluded that we had to get to the bottom of this incident,” an official Samsung statement announced.
Although LG has admitted that Jo Seong-jin, the company’s head of home appliances, has been named by Samsung’s investigation, the company has stressed its executives have nothing to feel guilty about.
"If our company had any intention to destroy products of a certain company to tarnish the image of the product, it would be common sense to not have our executives directly carry out such acts,” an LG spokesperson said.
"We hope that this is not an attempt to damage our reputation."
LG has revealed that it offered to pay the store where the incident occurred for four Samsung machines despite only two being damaged.
LG is currently the world’s leading supplier of washing machines, with Samsung second.
With Samsung and LG competing across all manner of product groups – appliances, mobiles, TVs – this could be the start of some seriously petty escalation. Next, expect to see company representatives kicking robot vacuum cleaners through stores and shops full of Galaxy Note 4 handsets all sporting S-Pen inscribed rude drawings.
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Via: BBC