It's today been revealed that 527 consumers in South Korea are requesting that Samsung compensates them for the costs to visit shops to exchange their recalled Galaxy Note 7, for the hours they had to wait while transferring data and for the psychological harm of using a potentially hazardous product.
Speaking in front of the Seoul Central District Court on Monday attorney Peter Young-Yeel Ko, head of the Harvest Law Firm, announced that 527 plaintiffs are seeking compensation. His clients include a person who claims to have lost thousands of pictures from a family vacation, and another who drove eight hours to return the device.
In total, the group are seeking 500,000 won ($442) compensation per person, which works out 263,500,000 won ($232,746) collectively. Although, it's perfectly possible that the figure will increase at a later date as additional plaintiffs come forward with more extreme cases.
“We are filing a lawsuit not to ask for hundreds of millions of won in punitive damages like in the United States,” Ko told reporters on Monday outside the Seoul Central District Court. Instead, “we are demanding fair compensation for the simple damage that consumers have suffered.”
One former Galaxy Note 7 owner told Young-Yeel Ko that he spent nearly 113,216 won ($100) on gas and highway tolls to return his handset after it was subject to the first recall, and he doesn't see why he should have to pay money out of his own pocket to protect himself from a problem caused by the manufacturer — and I agree.
I believe that this is a very reasonable lawsuit. Many customers were forced to pay out hundreds of dollars to replace furniture and other miscellaneous objects that were damaged by Galaxy Note 7 fires, and it's only right that Samsung should cover the cost of the goods as they'd still be functional if it wasn't for the handset exploding.
