Samsung Electronics on Wednesday won a class-action case which saw approximately 1,900 owners of the Galaxy Note 7 sue the company for 935 million won — around $822,000 — over various inconveniences they claimed to have experienced due to the recall of the 2016 phablet. The lawsuit was filed in Samsung’s home country in October and the Seoul Central District Court now ruled that any inconveniences caused by the recall weren’t unacceptable to a degree that they’d warrant such significant compensation, especially in light of the fact that the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) organized an extended recall period and gave its customers plenty of opportunities to return their possibly dangerous devices when it best suited them, receive a full refund, and in most cases even keep the accessories they got with the handset as part of several promotions.
The case was largely based on the fact that the Seoul-based phone maker recalled its ill-fated handset on two occasions; after initial reports of various Galaxy Note 7 units catching fire and exploding with no apparent reason started emerging around the world, the company pulled the device from the market and re-released it after several weeks, claiming that it has managed to identify a design flaw that caused the original ordeal. Further developments revealed that wasn’t the case, as some batteries powering the “safe” variant of the device were later proven to have melted in an equally spontaneous manner, leading Samsung to issue an unprecedented second recall of the Galaxy Note 7 and promptly discontinue the Android-powered phablet. Two successive recalls were cited as the main reason for various inconveniences of the plaintiffs, a notion that the competent court had now dismissed.
Regardless of the last year’s problems, the Galaxy Note 8 is projected to be a massive commercial hit in many of Samsung’s key markets. The successor to the discontinued flagship will be officially unveiled on August 23 and is expected to go on sale in South Korea on September 15. The same court that now ruled in Samsung’s favor is meant to issue a verdict on a much more important case for the company later this month, as Samsung Group Vice Chairman Jay. Y. Lee is currently waiting for the court’s opinion on the 12-year prison sentence that local prosecutors proposed for him based on charges of bribery, embezzlement, perjury, and hiding the proceeds of a criminal act.