Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest TV maker, said Saturday it doesn’t cheat on TV energy efficiency tests, responding to a news report that its TVs appear more energy efficient under test conditions than in everyday use. 


Tests conducted by ComplianceTV, a testing group funded by the European Union, has recently found the discrepancy, U.K.'s Guardian reported Thursday.

According to the report, the European Commission was also considering investigating allegations of cheating the tests even though it didn’t specify Samsung as the target company.

Samsung, however, flatly denied that it was rigging the system to make its products look better in regulatory lab tests.

At the heart of the issue is a feature in Samsung TVs called motion lighting. It is designed to adjust levels of screen brightness and thus reduce energy consumption when a picture on the screen is in motion.

ComplianceTV said that motion lighting was only activated during tests.

“Motion lighting is not a setting that only activates during compliance testing,” Samsung said in a blog post. “It is a default setting, which works both in the lab and at home, delivering energy saving and helping us to reduce our environmental impact.”

The company added motion lighting was introduced since 2011 across all its TVs as part of a range of features to help reduce the environmental impact of its TV technology.

“We are immensely proud of these technologies and look forward to innovating further in this area,” it said.

Samsung’s unusually quick denial came as some critics compared the case with Volkswagen’s recent admission that it cheated emissions tests with millions of its diesel-powered cars.

The Guardian also cited an official of the European Environmental Bureau who said: “If deception is proved for TVs, there’s bound to be a fresh hoard of angry customers a la Volkswagen.”

But sources said such claims are groundless.

“There are no incentives for fabricating the tests for TVs compared to cars,” said an industry source. “In cars, not meeting efficiency standards is not an option. But for TVs you can turn that setting on and off. They don’t benefit from making that optional setting more efficient.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)