Dutch Consumetenbond, the largest consumer protection advocacy in the Netherlands, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Samsung over lack of timely updates to its smartphones. The group demands the company to start properly updating its Android phones.
The Dutch consumers' association said in the lawsuit that Samsung did not provide an update to the latest Android version. According to OS News, the Dutch watchdog had been in talks with Samsung about the update issue, but no positive outcome was reached. The Consumentenbond said they saw no other option but to file a lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the Dutch group demands that Samsung provides two years of updates for all its Android devices, with the two year period starting at the date of sale. This means that Samsung devices introduced years ago that are still being sold should still get two years' worth of updates.
The director of the Consumentenbond, Bart Combée, said in a press release that Samsung smartphones consumers are given inadequate information about how long they will continue to receive software updates. He said that Samsung provides insufficient information about critical security vulnerabilities, such as Stagefright, in its Android phones.
Combée said that the group, which has over 500,000 members, is demanding that Samsung provide its customers with clear and unambiguous information about the issue.
In August 2015, Samsung announced to roll out Google's monthly OS security updates following the revelation of Android's massive Stagefright vulnerability. Samsung released the list of devices that are expected to receive the upgrade. Apparently, only its newest devices were on the list, and not every Galaxy phone and tablet currently in use, Neowin reported.
A research conducted by the Consumentenbond itself showed that 82 percent of Samsung smartphones sold in The Netherlands did not get updates to the most recent version of Android in the two year period. Samsung's failure to provide updates leads to all kinds of security issues and other problems.
The Consumentenbond said that Samsung is not the only manufacturer failing to provide updates, Digital Trends reported. But the Dutch group is only targetting the company due to Samsung's 80 percent marketshare in the Netherlands. The group suspects any new laws enforced after the lawsuit would be applied to all smartphone manufacturers in the country.
The Consumentenbond started in July 2015 a campaign encouraging Android manufacturers to update devices and keep customers informed on future updates and security patches. The group is now moving forward to a legal action to make sure the smartphone vendors in the country take notice.
