[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
normal guy vs. The Samsung

This saga seems to be entering a new chapter. First, official silence about blacklists. Now official silence as the blacklists are modified? Still no clarity about the company's corporate agenda.

Samsung sells smartphones, which don't work without firmware, so they sell us the firmware, too. But do they acknowledge and respect the fact that these are now our phones? You order a phone, you get excited about its arrival... then it comes with a seal on the box telling you it can't do everything you were told it could when you bought it. Or you buy the device a few months ago thinking there'll be no obstacles to keeping the firmware up to date, only to find that now you have to decide: do you want current firmware or full functionality? Or you consent to what you think is a normal OTA update without being fully informed about the significant limitations you're consenting to.

Beyond this important issue of consumer rights, I'm concerned about both the precedent Samsung is establishing and their assumption of their right to interfere with international commerce through their dominant market position (the issue you raised yesterday, dxzh, in your post about the EC).

Is it right for the private interests of a small group in one city -- in this case, Seoul -- to be able to create international obstacles to commerce across their global empire? What's to stop them from deciding that Gambia is on a blacklist but Senegal isn't, that Estonia's blacklisted but Latvia isn't, that China is but Taiwan isn't? Can they decide one day that Montenegro is out but Macedonia isn't then switch it a few weeks later, claiming a clerical error?

Does Samsung have the unilateral right to introduce any practice that would engender international trading blocs and, if so, on what basis? Is the Sinai part of Africa?... is Azerbaijan in Asia while Armenia's part of Europe?... and Kurdistan, that's the Middle East, right?...or are they all a part of the Middle East? (OK, maybe there isn't a Kurdistan, right now, but let's not deter The Samsung, if it's in their interests, from joining in on a little nation building.)

What's a country got to do if it wants to be removed from Samsung's blacklist and stay in their good graces? I'm not saying negotiations are in progress. But it's alarming how much of this is happening in secret, without any public oversight.

Samsung has not felt the need to explain themselves. No one who's really looking at this is buying their obscure reference to a 'greymarket' (created by their own pricing strategies) or problems with replacement-part availability (really, Samsung? if Hyundai can ship semi's, surely you can ship semiconductors). We know little about how or why they created their original lists... even less about why they are now making changes... and nothing about what or when further changes might arrive.

Samsung needs to be held accountable. I agree with onweel2, bubblesmoney, tmj12, wetsleet and our OP dxzh, that Samsung's business practices should be investigated for barriers to innovation, to free trade and to consumers' right to "

full

and

transparent

access to telecom services."