LHCA takes Samsung to task
Industry body the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) has criticised consumer electronics company Samsung for describing a new phone as having a “premium leather back cover” when the material it has used is synthetic.
On launching its Galaxy C55 5G phone, Samsung listed “an eye-catching and premium leather back cover” as one of its features. In the small print, the company gave more detail and conceded that the cover was, in fact, “vegetarian and does not contain any animal ingredients”.
Even in this explanation, the company managed to misuse the term ‘leather’ three times, saying, for example, that the synthetic material has the “texture and soft appearance” of leather.
At first, taking Samsung’s claims at face value, LHCA celebrated the product and included a mention of the Galaxy C55 5G in a recent edition of its Industry Sustainability Programme (ISP) newsletter.
It was alerted to Samsung’s speciousness by industry contacts, including World Leather’s eagle-eyed technical editor, Mat Abbott. When it realised the Samsung claims were false, LHCA issued an apology.
“We were misled as, it seems, were much of the mobile media around the world,” LHCA said, “and we apologise for that. But this does raise a wider question. Why are all the so-called substitutes allowed to use the word ‘leather’ in their marketing?”
We have asked Samsung if it intends to correct its false marketing claims, pointing out that they appear to be in breach of the law in a number of important markets, including Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France and Hungary. We have received no response so far.
