LG Electronics has sued Samsung Electronics over a controversial ad comparing the size of refrigerators manufactured by the two companies with unorthodox methods, according to the courts on Monday.
The lawsuit, in which LG filed for more than 10 billion won in damages, was filed at a Seoul district court last Friday.
“The ad deeply hurt our corporate image, and also affected our sales,” the company said, explaining why it decided to file the suit. “Further, we believe that unless we take additional action, such practices may be repeated in the future.”
Earlier, the court had sided with LG when it applied for an injunction to ban the ad from being showed, but the ad had run for about three months before the injunction went into effect.
In the ad, which was made exclusively for YouTube, Samsung Electronics fills two refrigerators with water to compare their capacity. Samsung’s capacity is depicted as bigger despite the fact the official capacity of the two fridges is identical.
LG fumed, saying the method was unverified and that the results could not be trusted.
Before the injunction, Samsung had rejected LG’s claims by posting follow-up ads.
By Kim Ji-hyun (
jemmie@heraldcorp.com)
