A summary lawsuit was filed by the Dutch Consumer's Association against Samsung back in 2016 over device support. It had prayed to the court that Samsung be compelled to provide regular software updates for devices and make its update schedule more transparent.
Samsung had emerged victorious then because the judge had ruled that the legal process adopted for the case wasn't suitable. An Amsterdam District Court ruled that the Consumers' Association had failed to show that there was urgent interest in the case and that the claims against Samsung were not suitable for summary proceedings. The court didn't consider the substantive arguments made by the association as it dismissed the case on a technicality.
Samsung promises to support devices for two years
The Dutch Consumers' Association refiled the case in late 2016 and it was taken up by the court yesterday for the first hearing. It maintains its demand that Samsung should provide timely updates for a device four years after it's launched or at least two years from the date it's purchased by a customer aside from being more transparent about its update schedule.
The association is going after Samsung for the second time over updates even though it had failed to demonstrate in the earlier interlocutory proceedings that there were concrete security breaches in Android that had put Samsung users at risk because the company didn't send out updates in a timely fashion. All of the association's claims had previously been rejected by the court.
Samsung doesn't seem to be worried about this latest legal challenge and appears convinced that it has a strong case against the Consumers' Association. The company has issued a statement to us reiterating its guarantee to customers that it will support smartphones for at least two years after their market release. It also points out that this doesn't mean it will stop supporting devices after those two years are up but points to recent updates it has released for older devices like the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy S6.
The full statement is posted below:
Samsung looks forward to the verdict of the proceedings on merits with confidence, because Samsung smartphones are safe during normal use, even after the guaranteed software support period. We take the privacy and safety of our users very seriously and will continue to do so in this dynamic world full of rapidly developing technologies.
Just like the Consumers' Association, we believe the safety of our mobile phones is very important. As a global market leader in the field of mobile devices, we strive to lead the way in this area too. We therefore guarantee consumers that we support our smartphones with updates for at least two years from the product introduction.
We have worked hard on this and are one of the few in the market to make this promise. The support of at least two years does not mean that we stop supporting our devices after those two years. We will continue to do so for as long as possible. For example, in 2017, we have updated the Samsung Galaxy S6 from 2015, S5 from 2014 and S4 from 2013.
