Samsung faces $15m fine over galaxy phones’ gaming performance

Now a Samsung GOS fine of about $15.1 million says the company left out the part where your phone held itself back.

South Korea's regulator calls that misleading.The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on Tuesday, 27 October, a tentative penalty of 20 billion won against Samsung Electronics.

It applies to ads for the Galaxy S21 series, the Galaxy S22 series and the Galaxy Tab S8 series.

The regulator has also ordered Samsung to stop running similar advertising.Game Optimising Service, or GOS, was built to stop devices from overheating or draining the battery during heavy play.

According to the KFTC, it kicked in the moment certain demanding games launched and capped CPU and GPU speeds.The restrictions hit 82 games on the S21 series, 47 on the S22 series and eight on the Tab S8 series.

Between January 2021 and March 2022, Samsung made GOS mandatory, and you couldn't delete it.

What you'd notice: freezes, lag and softer graphics.Marketing has focused on speed.

Samsung marketed the 5-nanometre processor as a means to “hard-carry your gaming” and “the ultimate mobile gaming experience” using a 120 Hz screen.

All that, but there was no mention of the cap.The reasoning of the regulator is quite obvious.

Consumers look at the gaming performance before paying for the product; therefore, omission of the cap distorted their decision-making.Since the fine is preliminary, the amount may be changed.

In case you have one of the devices, it should be noted that the specification refers to what the processor can do rather than what it is capable of when under stress.

Samsung faces $15m fine over galaxy phones' gaming performance November 1, 2026.