James Delahunty
24 Oct 2013 14:41
Samsung has been fined $340,000 after an investigation found it was behind an astroturfing campaign aimed at praising its products and attacking competitors.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in Taiwan announced in April this year that it was investigating claims that Samsung was using an army of paid commenters to market its products and bash those of a competitor in Taiwanese Internet forums.
At the time, the media identified the victim as HTC Corp.
The FTC found that Samsung was indeed behind such a campaign, using a large number of hired writers through third-party firms. Two firms were fined over $100,000 for their part.
Samsung has been fined $340,000, though the FTC report does not identify HTC as a target.