SK Telecom’s false advertising could prevent customers from making rational choices in the mobile market, and impede fair transactions with the company’s imposing presence. (image: Youtube screenshot of SK’s LTE TV advertisement)
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Central District Court has ruled against SK Telecom‘s advertising for its tri-band LTE-A service. KT and LG Uplus filed complaints to the court on January 10 and 12 respectively, claiming that SK Telecom’s tri-band LTE-A service ads represented false advertising.
The two plaintiffs filed an injunction to ban SK Telecom’s use of certain phrases such as ‘the world’s first.’ On January 23, the court banned the distribution of SKT’s ads across all Korean media.
SK Telecom claimed to launch its tri-band LTE-A service on December 29, 2014. The said service was limited to a single device model, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 S-LTE, and the company started to air related TV commercials on January 9.
However, KT claimed that SK Telecom’s tri-band LTE-A service that was restricted to a single device model with limited rate coverage could not be considered as a commercialized service of tri-band LTE-A.
The court said that SK Telecom’s LTE-A advertising, which delivered the message that SK Telecom accomplished the world’s first commercialization of tri-band LTE-A, constituted false and excessive advertising, since the company did not accomplish the commercialization for the first time in the world.
The court also said that SK Telecom’s false advertising could prevent customers from making rational choices in the mobile market, and impede fair transactions with the company’s imposing presence. Upon the court’s verdict, SK Telecom is to stop all related advertisements, on all media types.
By John Choi (johnchoi@koreabizwire.com)
