LG president discloses footage over vandalism allegations

By Bahk Eun-ji

Jo Seong-jin LG Electronics president

Jo Seong-jin, president of LG Electronics’ home appliance division, posted a video clip on YouTube in which he categorically refutes allegations that he intentionally broke Samsung Electronics’ washing machines at SATURN Berlin Steglitz, a German electronics shop.

In the post, Jo said he didn’t have any intention of breaking the products of a rival company in front of so many people in such a public place.

The footage shows Jo and other executives examining Samsung’s laundry machine and pressing down on the doors of the machine several times for awhile.

Jo, however, said it was part of testing the washers, which is ordinarily done by customers.

“Users frequently press the door of the washing machine when they doing laundry. Testing the sturdiness of the door hinge is just ordinary process of testing the machine in that sense,” the president said in the clip.

Jo disclosed the footage a day after he and two other executives were indicted on charges of damaging the Samsung washing machines.

LG has been claiming the executives were just testing Samsung’s machine at the store in Berlin, but prosecutors concluded they damaged them on purpose.

The LG’s executives were charged of damaging two laundry machines at SATURN Berlin Steglitz and one at the SATURN Berlin Europa-Center, just ahead of the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) trade show where the two nation’s tech giants competed in consumer electronics.

The executives of LG were questioned by German police after an employee at SATURN Berlin Europa-Center reported them, but the case was initially closed after the LG executives agreed to compensate for the damaged products.

However, prosecutors raided the headquarters of LG and its home appliance factory in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province in December.

Jo kept saying he had no intention of damaging Samsung’s products deliberately. He said while he was pushing the door of the washing machine, several Samsung staffers nearby did not stop him.

“Because it was not vandalizing the machine, so they didn’t even need to stop us,” Jo said.

A Samsung spokesman declined to comment on Jo’s latest claims.