2nd Class-Action Smartphone Suit Accuses Samsung of ‘Benchmark Fraud’

A second class-action fraud complaint in four weeks accuses Samsung of duping consumers by using the “game optimizing service” apps on its Galaxy smartphones to artificially boost the devices’ performance when they detect “benchmarking apps” used by reviewers to grade and compare a phone’s speed and other attributes against competitive models. Consumers from seven states brought the complaint against Samsung Friday in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, alleging the OEM “puts cheating software on its devices that allow benchmark testing applications to run at high speed, while it throttles the speed and performance of every day applications in order to maintain safe operating temperatures and preserve battery life.” The result is that Samsung smartphones “fraudulently test at high performance rates that consumers will never experience with real-world applications,” said the complaint. “This lawsuit aims to put a stop to Samsung’s benchmark fraud and level the playing field.” Samsung didn’t comment. The earlier suit was filed March 11, also in Newark federal court (see 2203140002).