Samsung Ordered to Pay Galaxy Owners Over Secret Throttling

A years-long legal battle over Samsung’s Game Optimization Service has finally come to an end. Galaxy owners are set to receive compensation after a court ruled against the company’s secret throttling.

Samsung has developed various tools over the years to optimize performance in its Galaxy devices. One of these additions was the Gaming Optimization Service, or GOS. However, when it was first introduced, users were forced to use the feature with no way to opt out. This eventually led to a class-action lawsuit, which Samsung has now settled by being ordered to compensate thousands of users.

GOS was originally designed to keep heat dissipation manageable in the Galaxy S22 series, which was powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. To prevent overheating, the service throttled the processor and reduced graphics capabilities during gaming and other resource-intensive tasks.

The feature became highly controversial when it was discovered that the throttling applied to thousands of standard apps but was selectively disabled during benchmarking tests to make the phone appear more powerful than it was.

Years later, Samsung eventually tweaked GOS to allow users to manually enable or disable the tool and choose between different performance modes.

Galaxy S22 Users Are Getting Paid by Samsung

The class-action lawsuit was filed in South Korea in 2022 by 1,882 consumers. The suit alleged that Samsung engaged in anti-consumer practices by secretly throttling the performance of the Galaxy S22 series and failing to inform buyers about the feature. The plaintiffs argued that this lack of transparency led to a significant degradation of the user experience.

Now, four years after the controversy began, the case concluded on March 18 through a forced court-mediated settlement, first reported by The Chosun Daily (via SamMobile). This followed a period where no voluntary agreement could be reached between the two parties. Originally, the users involved sought approximately 300,000 KRW, or roughly $200, in damages for each individual. While the judge has ordered Samsung to pay the plaintiffs, the final settlement amount remains undisclosed.

If you are wondering whether you will receive a payout, you may be disappointed. The lawsuit only covers the specific consumers who were part of the legal action in South Korea.

Should Brands Have the Right to Limit Functionalities?

This is one of several high-profile consumer debacles involving smartphone performance limits. A famous example is Apple’s “batterygate,” where the company admitted to slowing down iPhones to preserve battery health. That lawsuit was finalized in 2020 with a $500 million settlement, while state-level investigations only wrapped up last year.

These cases continue to fuel the discussion surrounding user autonomy and consumer rights. Many argue that owners should be the ultimate deciding factor in how their devices operate, rather than the manufacturers.

What are your thoughts on this? Should brands give users full control over their hardware, even if it risks overheating? We want to hear your opinion.