LG staff accused of vandalising Samsung’s washing machines at trade fair

How to make your competitor look bad? Sabotage their products on display.

That's what executives of LG Electronics apparently did.

In what sounds like a childish plot better left to comedies, the firm’s staff members allegedly vandalised their rival Samsung’s washing machines at a trade fair in Germany.

South Korean prosecutors raided the Seoul headquarters of LG on Friday following the allegations.

Samsung Electronics had filed a lawsuit accusing the LG executives of defamation, property damage and obstruction of business and said LG home appliance division president Jo Seong-Jin was among those who damaged machines at the September event in Berlin.

Under scrutiny

Investigators seized documents and computer hard disks during the raid, Yonhap news agency said, adding that the company’s home appliance factory in the southern city of Changwon was also searched.

An LG spokesman said: "Our office is under scrutiny by investigators."

Samsung said surveillance video footage from the fair showed several men – which they later identified as LG executives – destroying door hinges on the washing machines.

Samsung has also accused LG of making slanderous claims that its washing machines were defective.

LG rejected the accusations in a statement, saying the company is “concerned that its business activities and brand image will be severely damaged because of the competitor’s unilateral and unreasonable opinion”.

Samsung and LG have for years locked horns in the home market over a series of bitter PR disputes regarding the supremacy of their products and technology patent lawsuits.

Source: AFP