Samsung fires back at LG over QLED TV ad

Samsung Electronics demanded for LG Electronics to stop with its negative campaigning, referring to a complaint that LG filed with South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission last week.

"(Such) exhaustive disputes are creating confusion among consumers and market players at a time when the business environment is challenging at home and abroad," Samsung said in a statement. "We will sternly deal with groundless claims (by LG)."

On Sept. 20, LG Electronics filed the complaint accusing Samsung’s QLED TV advertisement ‘misleading.’

QLED is Samsung's marketing term for its premium TVs that use quantum dot (QD) technology to enhance picture quality. LG said Samsung's QLED TV is nothing more than an LCD TV with backlight panel featuring an additional QD sheet, and is thus not a true QLED display since it doesn’t use quantum-dot light-emitting diodes.

Samsung has in the past advertised its premium TV lineup as Super Ultra High Definition (SUHD), but switched to QLED in 2017, which sounds similar to LG's OLED TVs, according to LG. It also said that Samsung's ‘exaggerated, misleading’ ad should faces necessary measures to better protect consumer rights.

Samsung is the world's largest TV maker, and LG is the leader in OLED, panels that can emit light on its own without requiring backlight panels. Samsung's share in the TV market accounted for 31.5% in terms of value in the second quarter, while LG accounted for 16.5%, according to market researcher IHS Markit.

The number of QLED TVs sold in the global market reached 1.2 million in Q2 to more than double. Among them, 1.09 million units were made by Samsung, said IHS.

The Elec is South Korea’s No.1 tech news platform.