Last updated: March 20th, 2026 at 18:02 UTC+01:00
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Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile
Samsung had a PR disaster on its hands not long after the launch of the Galaxy S22 series. It had emerged that all three phones in the lineup came pre-installed with a feature called Game Optimization Service or GOS.
It was found to be throttling performance for more than 1,000 apps and games on the devices. GOS was enabled by default and there was no way to disable it until Samsung offered one through an update. Several Galaxy S22 owners took it to court in South Korea over this issue and it has now been ordered to pay them compensation.
Samsung initially did some damage control by saying that GOS only limited the performance of games and prevented the devices from overheating. Once the displeasure from customers grew, it released a new software update that finally enabled them to disable GOS.
It did become that much of a PR headache that JH Han, CEO of Samsung's DX division at that time, bowed in apology at the company's shareholders' meeting that year.
Korean media reports that in a mediation decision before the Seoul High Court Civil Division in the lawsuit brought by 1,882 customers in South Korea, Samsung Electronics will now pay an undisclosed amount in compensation to the plaintiffs. They had sued the company four years ago over its failure to inform them that GOS was included in the Galaxy S22 series phones.
This decision is limited to South Korea, and likely only those plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit in the first place, but at least some customers were able to hold the company accountable for what they thought was an oversight on its part.
Adnan Farooqui is a long-term writer at SamMobile. Based in Pakistan, his interests include technology, finance, Swiss watches and Formula 1. His tendency to write long posts betrays his inclination to being a man of few words.
