Courtney Jorstad  |  February 11, 2014

Category: Consumer News

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Samsung Galaxy S4A class action lawsuit has been filed against Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC, along with it’s subsidiary Samsung Electronics America, for allegedly making false claims about its Galaxy S4 smartphones for the purpose of boosting sales.

According to the Galaxy S4 class action lawsuit, filed by California resident Daniel Norcia in a Northern California federal court, Samsung manipulated the performance of their smartphone to work at higher speeds with certain apps, known as “benchmarking” apps that are used by third-party reviewers when evaluating such devices.

“Specifically, Samsung has programmed these devices to run at higher-than-normal speeds when they detect certain ‘benchmarking apps,'” the Samsung class action lawsuit explains. “Benchmarking apps are performance-measuring tools used by reviewers and consumers to test and compare the speed and performance of smartphones and tablets.”

Norcia alleges that the high performance of the Galaxy S4 on these apps was done intentionally by Samsung, which created a false perception about the speed and the performance of the Galaxy S4 devices because Samsung knew that certain apps were used for evaluating and comparing smartphones and other devices.

“Samsung also knew that if it artificially boosted the performance of its devices when running benchmarking apps, reviewers and the public would falsely believe that the Galaxy S4 was similarly fast in real-world situations,” the Samsung class action lawsuit says. “In reality, the processors in the Galaxy S4 run at a lower speed and the artificial performance boost disappears when the devices are performing real world tasks instead of running benchmarking apps.”

The phones and tablets were allegedly “rigged,” Norcia argues to increase the popularity of the devices “to the detriment of the public.”

He claims this was done by writing “code into the firmware (embedded software) of the S4 to automatically and immediately drive Central Processing Unit (‘CPU’). . . voltage/frequency to their highest state, and to immediately engage all four processing cores of the CPU,”  when the benchmarking apps are in use.

The same is allegedly true for the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

“When benchmarking apps are detected, the GPU runs at a clock speed of 533 MHz, while the speed of the GPU is limited to 480 MHz when running other apps,” Norcia claims.

Norcia also alleges that Samsung is deceitful regarding the storage capacity available on the Galaxy S4. He claims that Samsung advertised the smartphone as coming with 16 gigabytes of storage, which it does, but the  operating system and other software installed on the phone takes up about half of that amount, essentially “rendering it inaccessible and unusable to the end user.”

The California man bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone when it was first released at his local Verizon Wireless store. Norcia decided to purchase the Samsung phone after reading several reviews that detailed the performance of the phone based on benchmark tests. He also noted the specifications of the Galaxy S4, particularly that it came with 16 GB of memory.

However, the plaintiff in the class action lawsuit claims that Samsung did not admit to himself or any other Galaxy S4 customers that they “rigged” their phones to perform well on benchmark tests nor that the Galaxy’s operating system takes up almost 7 GB of the 16 GB on the phone.

This alleged manipulation of the phone by Samsung was reportedly discovered by a third party.

Norcia is charging Samsung with violating California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and fraud.

The plaintiff is represented by Eduardo G. Roy, Daniel C. Quintero and John R. Hurley of Prometheus Partners LP.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Norcia v. Samsung Telecommunications America LLC et al., Case No. 3:14-cv-00582, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Jan. 19, 2017, the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled against Samsung’s bid to force arbitration in two separate class action lawsuits filed in California. 

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 31, 2019, a Samsung Galaxy owner is seeking Class certification in his lawsuit alleging that the company rigged its smartphones to run faster in pre-sale speed tests.

UPDATE 3: On Sept. 26, 2019, Samsung agreed to pay $2.8 million to resolve class action claims that the company misled customers about their Galaxy S4 speeds.

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89 thoughts onGalaxy S4 Class Action Lawsuit Says Samsung Rigged Speed Tests

  1. Tia Moore says:

    Please add me . Samsung 21. Theresa Moore

  2. Alfred Ponder says:

    I was a loyal galaxy s buyer up from s to s6

    1. Dorothy Ellis says:

      I a Galaxy S4 and a Galaxy 7 and A12 Galaxy and more just join me in also

  3. Steve Miller says:

    I’ve been loyal to them for several years.S1 S3 S4 S5 S6 A01 S21

  4. Patricia Barton says:

    Had Samsung S21 and turned it in. Had so many problems couldn’t even use phobe. Purchased another phone not a Samsung at my own expense and was not given a rebate or any compensation for the Samsung

  5. Tyishia Pasha says:

    Add me I have a Samsung ultra plus 22

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