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Hundreds of Galaxy Note 7 owners seeking compensation from Samsung in South Korea

posted by Cosmin V. / Oct 24, 2016, 6:58 AM

Hundreds of Galaxy Note 7 owners seeking compensation from Samsung in South Korea

It had to happen sooner or later, so the news that many Galaxy Note 7 owners have decided to file lawsuits against Samsung in South Korea isn't a surprise, especially that we've already reported about similar actions in the United States.

However, unlike some of the lawsuits in the United States that seek millions in punitive damages, Galaxy Note 7 owners in South Korea have a softer attitude towards the handset maker.

The Korean media reports that no less than 527 plaintiffs have decided to file a lawsuit against Samsung to compensate them for the costs to head to the company's stores and exchange their phones, but also for the hours they had to wait while transferring the data from the Galaxy Note 7 to a new smartphone.

Attorney Peter Young-Yeel Ko, the head of the law firm representing the plaintiffs, says that the lawsuit also seeks compensation from Samsung for the psychological harm from using a hazardous product like the Galaxy Note 7.

We are filing a lawsuit not to ask for hundreds of millions of won in punitive damages like in the United States. We are demanding fair compensation for the simple damage that consumers have suffered.

Each plaintiff is seeking 500,000 (about $440) compensation per person, but that's only the initial amount, so the sum might increase later. There's a catch though, as South Korean courts do not award punitive damages.

Samsung recently announced a new Galaxy Note 7 upgrade program in South Korea, where owners who decide to go for the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge now, will receive a 50% discount on the upcoming Galaxy S8 or Galaxy Note 8.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

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source: The News & Observer via SamMobile

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22 Comments

1. AllFanboysMatter

Posts: 206; Member since: Feb 14, 2016

As they should! Samsung is such a poorly run company. They should be glad that the world isn't going after them as hard as they are. Can't believe how badly this company responded to a damn problem they created themselves. Millions were put at risk, and still are at risk. Where are they to be found? No where. All these Samsung executives have been doing is sitting down, eating donuts and getting fat. What a pathetic way to try try to save your company. They are completely oblivious to the fake that consumer interest is falling rapidly. They deserve all the backlash. They can't even completely finish a little recall. I am not trusting this sorry company with my money ever again. Samsung is officially the worst company in existence. Come out with Note Grenades 7. How crappy. Can't even have a proper quality control team check out your phones before release. TALK ABOUT LAZY!!

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:00 AM 3

3. bolosantosi

Posts: 103; Member since: Sep 20, 2016

Oh look, another note 7 rant from you....

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:08 AM 7

4. AllFanboysMatter

Posts: 206; Member since: Feb 14, 2016

I must help other people see what Samsung truly is - A company that only thinks with their wallets and can care less about consumer safety. Excuse me for asking for better so that the PhoneArena community can be safe and precautious. Excuse me for wishing better upon a multi billion dollar company that has more cash than some countries. It's safe to say that most should agree they need to get their stuff together. It's insane to me how long they are taking to deal with this simple issue. THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW THE DAMN CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM YET! HOW IRRESPONSIBLE!!! HOW PATHETIC!!! Seriously, if they expect anyone to fork over cash for the note 8 and the s8, how are they not going to know how to fix this life threatening issue? That fat CEO does nothing but eat donuts and cookies trying to ignore the problem. Well guess what Mr . CEO .... nothing with happen if you continue to do nothing. Now let's motivate this sorry company to get off their BUTTS and do someting. All they are doing is causeing other people's BUTTS to burn! 3rd degree sometimes. what a disgrace!!! what a shame! Samsung will go down as one of the worst companies in history. That's really too bad because I happen to love their refrigerators. The refrigerators are probabaly the only products the Executives use since they like KEEPING THEIR STUPID DONUTS COLD AS PEOPLE ARE BURNING THEIR BUTTTSSSSSS!!!!!! Samsung, get it together and stop being lazy!

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:14 AM 4

11. Marienx

Posts: 118; Member since: Aug 27, 2013

Really? You are helping nobody... I'm not a Samsung fan... I've been having Nexuses, HTCs and Motorolas all my life, but you sir are a troll.... We've now heard of iPhone 7's exploding and many more to come due to the water resistant design.... Let's see how iPhone is going to react... Mind you... They are probably going to react after 1000 phones explode. This is something that needed to happen to learn from it. Now we know for sure Samsung phones anre going to be better built in the future due to this incident (They will not like to loose more money).

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:40 AM 4

18. bolosantosi

Posts: 103; Member since: Sep 20, 2016

I'm not denying that Samsung messed up, but you complain on most of these note 7 articles and you also rant on about Apple. You act like the note 7 recall represents the whole entirety of Samsung. I imagine that Samsung is working on finding the problem, its not as easy as you may think. Samsung will be back

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:43 AM 3

22. darkkjedii

Posts: 30972; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

Get laid

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 4:56 PM 1

5. Subie

Posts: 2356; Member since: Aug 01, 2015

Does the same on LG articles too.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:15 AM 0

6. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you... TechieXP's Samsung hater equivalent!

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:16 AM 5

12. lyndon420

Posts: 6745; Member since: Jul 11, 2012

Close. He needs to double up the size of his essays for a fair comparison.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:45 AM 3

2. pongkie

Posts: 663; Member since: Aug 20, 2011

How about the other accessories that the dealers won't accept for refund

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:00 AM 2

21. MartyK

Posts: 1043; Member since: Apr 11, 2012

I read were they will not accept the gear VR back, even when oculus shut down service to this device, and it don't work correctly with other's devices.. If this is true, add this to another miss opportunity Samsung missed

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 12:03 PM 0

7. lyndon420

Posts: 6745; Member since: Jul 11, 2012

Compensation because they had to go to a store? Mental anguish / stress?? Hours to transfer data?? Ok...$20 - $30 for a cab ride, but the rest is kinda silly especially if none of their devices blew up on them. And since when does it take hours to transfer data on an Android phone when you can just sign in on a new device with your Gmail account?

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:25 AM 0

8. Plasticsh1t

Posts: 3101; Member since: Sep 01, 2014

Now the fanboys will come here and say : "this is not true. PA is lying. Bad journalism. Samsung didn't complete their investigation. Was the best phone ever. Samsung never hide anything from us" I petty them.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:29 AM 0

9. Plasticsh1t

Posts: 3101; Member since: Sep 01, 2014

*pity

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:29 AM 0

13. sissy246

Posts: 7087; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

This is stupid 1. It doesn't take hours to transfer stuff to another phone. 2. If that did have to take a cab it maybe was $10 to $20 for the ride. 3. If they drove to town they maybe spent $5 to $15 in gas. So yes I can see taking $50 off what ever they bought in place of the note. And yes even i would stick up for Apple if it was them or any other phone maker on this one.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:47 AM 1

10. HugoBarraCyanogenmod

Posts: 1412; Member since: Jul 06, 2014

Phonearena is starting to become like CNN, I'm not complaining PA posting negative articles on Samsung, but when something bad is happening on Apple device PA mums about it. This is the definition of biased, don't try to "fact check" the readers. Too much Samsung bashing articles already

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:33 AM 6

14. sissy246

Posts: 7087; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

Well they did post about the iphone that cought fire, but you will only find the one post about it. They will never do 10 fallow up articles a day like they do with Samsung.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:54 AM 3

17. truthwins unregistered

WELL SAID

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:20 AM 0

20. MrElectrifyer

Posts: 3960; Member since: Oct 21, 2014

That's part of why I'll never disable AdBlock on this site.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 11:43 AM 1

15. dimas

Posts: 3347; Member since: Jul 22, 2014

That's Koreans for you. They don't care if you're a big brand in the planet. If you sucked, you should compensate for your mistakes that's why samsung made the hasty recall before damage gets big. Apple should better handle those exploding iphone 7 issues properly, Koreans are very cruel to companies neglecting errors.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:04 AM 0

16. DeusExCellula

Posts: 1390; Member since: Oct 05, 2014

Psychological damage?

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:11 AM 0

19. ebilcake

Posts: 1227; Member since: Jul 16, 2016

I doubt there where that many cases, for damage caused by the phone while catching fire they should claim compensation, for anything else they don't have a case.