(LEAD) Samsung, LG withdraw mutual complaints over QLED TV ad

(ATTN: ADDS more info in paras 9-10)

SEJONG, June 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's two largest electronics firms, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., have agreed to drop complaints against each other over a TV advertisement, the country's corporate watchdog confirmed Friday.

The Fair Trade Commission said it decided not to further process the complaint cases after the two companies withdrew their complaints.

In September, LG filed a complaint with the FTC over Samsung's QLED TV advertisement, saying its QLED brand is "misleading."

QLED is Samsung's marketing term for its premium TVs that use quantum dot (QD) technology to enhance performance in key picture quality areas, though other manufacturers have also come up with their own QLED TVs in recent years.

LG claimed that Samsung's QLED TV is merely a liquid crystal display (LCD) TV with a backlight panel that has an additional QD sheet, not a "true QLED" display that uses quantum-dot light-emitting diodes.

A month later, Samsung fought back with its own complaint, calling for LG to stop negative campaigning without clear proof.

The complaints came amid their heated rivalry in the TV market.

While Samsung is the world's largest TV maker, LG is a leader in OLED, which can emit light on its own without a backlight panel. LG has been touting that its OLED panel can produce "true black" and can be made as thin as wallpaper.

LG said in a release that it dropped the complaint as the situation appears to be resolving in the country, claiming that Samsung admitted through its website and YouTube channel that its QLED TV is a LCD TV product using LED backlighting and a QD film.

A Samsung official said it withdrew the complaint as LG stopped its attack on QLED TV and dropped its complaint first, adding that the result indicates that there is no problem using the QLED brand.

Samsung accounted for 32.4 percent of the world TV market in terms of value in the first quarter of the year, according to market tracker Omdia. LG came second with a market share of 18.7 percent in terms of value over the cited period.

kdon@yna.co.kr
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