FTC to slap $15.1 mil. fine on Samsung Electronics for misleading gaming ads

Korea's antitrust watchdog said Tuesday it has decided to impose a tentative fine of 20 billion won ($15.1 million) on Samsung Electronics Co. for misleading advertisements concealing features limiting the performance of its Galaxy S21 and S22 smartphones during gaming. The Fair Trade Commission's (FTC) decision concerns the two smartphone series, released in 2021 and 2022, respectively, along with the Galaxy Tab S8 tablet series launched in 2022. According to the FTC, the South Korean tech giant failed to disclose that its game optimizing service (GOS) imposed preset performance limits as soon as certain demanding gaming apps were launched, while promoting the products' advanced gaming capabilities in advertisements. GOS is a heat management system for gaming apps. Under its game-specific policies, it capped maximum CPU and GPU performance regardless of the device's temperature or other conditions. The limitations could cause freezes, lag and reduced graphics quality during gameplay, the FTC said. "When Samsung Electronics began releasing such advertisements around 2021, high-end PC game