Samsung India drags LG Electronics to MRTPC

NEW DELHI, JAN 23: Consumer electronics major Samsung India Electronics has dragged rival company LG Electronics India to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission MRTPC for allegedly projecting itself as the number one company dealing in consumer durables and home appliances.pAccepting Samsung8217;s complaint, MRTPC directed LG Electronics to file a reply by March 7, 2000. It also asked LG Electronics to submit a reply to the commission on Samsung8217;s request to grant interim relief by restraining the former from carrying on allegedly unfair trade practices through advertisements claiming themselves to be the number one company.

Samsung, in its complaint to the MRTPC, alleged that LG Electronics, through its advertisements, was misleading consumers to believe that it was the number one company as compared with all the other consumer durable companies. Therefore, LG Electronics was making an allegedly disparaging statement about its competitors denigrating their products and thereby indulgingin unfair, restrictive trade practices, it claimed.

Though there was no recognised mode of being declared number one, a brand commanding highest market share might make such a claim, but LG Electronics did not even have the highest market share, it alleged.

Samsung alleged that LG Electronics was nowhere near the brand commanding highest market share and even by comparison of the features of its products, the company could not be called a market leader. The advertisements published in various newspapers during October-November 1999, therefore, made false and misleading representations about the company, it said in its complaint to the MRTPC. Samsung alleged the advertisements were made with a view to influence customers into believing that LG Electronics was the market leader.