The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission has announced that it has taken legal action against manufacturers such as Samsung and Oppo over their practice of pre-installing apps on their smartphones.
In a study of 20 smartphones, the commission found several that were sold with apps already installed, many of which could not be removed. It also claimed that some phones ‘stole’ cellular data, the Shanghai Daily reported.
The commission said that two of the offending models were a Samsung SM-N9008S (Samsung Galaxy Note 3), which had 44 apps installed prior to purchase and the Oppo X9007 model (Oppo Find 7A), which had 71 such programs. Neither of the companies informed the buyer of the presence of the apps which infringed the consumers’ rights to know. The apps pre-installed on the Samsung device included an electronic dictionary along with an online shopping program, where as the Oppo device came with various games and other programs.
The commission’s lawsuit is seeking a ruling from the court, which would require smartphone manufacturers to clearly state on the product’s packaging what apps have been installed, and give consumers instructions on how to remove unwanted software, added the report. Samsung and Oppo have 15 days from the date of the cases being accepted to enter a defense and after that, the court will likely announce the trial dates.
