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"Samsung has been fined for posting fake online reviews and comments praising its products, and criticising its competitors. Taiwan&amp;#039;s Fair Trade Commission fined the company $340,000 (\u00A3210,000) for paying a company to carry out the false commenting.  Samsung used OpenTide, which included a &amp;quot;large number of hired writers and designated employees&amp;quot;, to post on Taiwanese forums. HTC is thought to have been one of the main victims of fake negative comments, although the FTC&amp;#039;s report fails to name any specific companies, instead claiming Samsung&amp;#039;s tactic was used to &amp;quot;highlight the shortcomings of competing products&amp;quot;. The report goes further, saying that Samsung took part in the &amp;quot;disinfection of negative news about Samsung products&amp;quot; and posting positive evaluations of their own products. An investigation into Samsung&amp;#039;s conduct began in April, when it admitted: &amp;quot;The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles. &amp;quot;Samsung Electronics Taiwan (SET) has ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments, and will ensure that all SET online marketing activities will be fully compliant with the company&amp;#039;s Online Communications Credo.&amp;quot; It added: &amp;quot;We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused. We will continue to reinforce education and training for our employees to prevent any future recurrence.&amp;quot;  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/samsung/news/a526256/samsung-fined-340000-for-fake-online-comments-about-competitors/>