The Dutch Consumentenbond, the largest consumer advocacy group in the Netherlands, has filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics, accusing the Korean tech giant of having delayed software updates for its Android smartphones.

The group had been in talks with Samsung about the issue, but no positive outcome was reached, they said.

“We saw no other option but to file suit,” the group said in a statement Monday.

Citing its own research, the group said that 82 percent of Samsung phones sold in the Netherlands did not get updates to the most recent version of Android over the past two years, which it claimed leads to security and other concerns. 




Samsung’s market share in the Dutch smartphone market stands at about 80 percent.

The group admitted Samsung may not be the only company responsible for the issue, saying other Android phone manufacturers are also guilty of the same problems.

The group said the lawsuit came due to the company’s dominant market position.

A Samsung official was quoted as saying the company planned to start the software updates soon for its flagship smartphones, including the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)