Settlement of Legal Action between Samsung & Eurostar
Samsung has settled legal actions commenced against Eurostar Global Electronics Limited (“Eurostar”) regarding Eurostar’s acquisition of Samsung smartphone products from mainland European Union countries and its subsequent modification of those products before selling them to the UK or Ireland.
Eurostar had removed the original 2-pin mainland European charges from those products and replaced them with 3-pin UK charges, and had also changed the original mainland EU-country specific variant of firmware on those products to an English variant. However, Eurostar had made those modifications without informing costumers or Samsung that they had been made.
Samsung took action against Eurostar to help ensure that consumers receive full information about the products they are buying, particularly where original parts of the product are removed ad replaced. Both Samsung and Eurostar acknowledge that it is important for customers to be notified of any such modifications, and also the identity of the company which has made those modifications, as unauthorised modification may be unsafe and may not operate correctly or receive updates.
Samsung has a right to prevent the sale of Samsung products that have been modified without its consent unless specific criteria are met regarding the nature and extend of the modifications and the notification of those modification to Samsung and customers. Eurostar will pay an undisclosed amount to Samsung in respect of its failure to comply with those criteria with in the past, and Samsung has agreed the basis on which Eurostar can modify products in the future.
Eurostar will:
- only replace the original 2-pin Samsung charges with 3-pin Samsung charges of the same specification;
- only replace the original EU-country specific firmware with an English variant firmware used by Samsung, using a method which ensures users will receive software and security updates and ensure that the replacement firmware is at least as up to date as the version installed during the manufacturing process;
- not remove any Samsung documentation from the box and provide a link to the English User Manual;
- apply a sticker to the outside of the box to explain to the customer how the product has been modified and who has made the modifications; and
- provide a sample of each modified product to Samsung before supplying it to customers.
Dated: 25 March 2019
