Ad description

A website for Samsung UK, www.samsung.co.uk, seen in September 2017, promoted a television. Text stated, “QLED The Next Innovation In TV…QLED TV - Samsung QLED is Quantum dot based TV.”

Issue

The complainant, who understood the product used a standard LED-lit LCD display, challenged whether describing the product as “QLED” was misleading.

Response

Samsung said their QLED TVs used a new technology that provided benefits over standard LED TVs. The TV used a layer of metal implemented quantum dots which were lit using separate LEDs. The benefits of this were not presently available with any other television technology and included 100% colour volume and high brightness and contrast. They considered QLED was a new technology with specific advantages and it was not a simple rebranding of existing LED technology.

They said there had been different theories presented as to how quantum dots could be used over time, and manufacturers had been researching and developing different uses of the technology. They understood there were primarily two different types of quantum dots that had been discussed in the context of television technology: (1) photo-luminescent quantum dots, which required a light to be shone through them to produce colour; and (2) electro-luminescent quantum dots, which produced their own light. They said the first type of quantum dots were used in Samsung’s QLED TVs. They said the second type of quantum dots had never, to date, been successfully used in a television product; any use of that technology in televisions was therefore only theoretical. Further, they said there was unlikely ever to be industry agreement or consensus on the use of QLED because many television manufacturers (including LG, Sony and Panasonic) were focusing on a competing technology to QLED called OLED. They said the television manufacturers that were not focusing on OLED technology, and who at present made up three of the four biggest television manufacturers globally, had agreed to use QLED to describe any TVs that used Quantum Dot technology. Samsung provided a press release about that agreement in support. They said there was no agreed industry standard for QLED and, in particular, the term was widely used other than to refer to electro-luminescent quantum dot technology. They cited a 2016 Insight white paper which concluded “QLED” refers to any LED/LCD TV that uses quantum dot technology” in support of that view.

They said there had been no television product launched using the name QLED which used electro-luminescent quantum dot technology and that it was incorrect to describe electro-luminescent quantum dots as “pure QLED”, as there was no pure or impure use of QLED - the name was simply used to describe the use of quantum dots in television technology. They did not consider that consumers would be misled into thinking that the product used electro-luminescent quantum dot technology. They considered consumers were very unlikely to know that electro-luminescent quantum dot technology existed unless they had specifically researched the issue and those who had not would not be misled, because all they would know was that they were purchasing a premium TV that had the QLED name and which had benefits over other TVs on the market. They said they believed an average consumer would not have any pre-conceptions about what QLED means. Furthermore, they said consumers who had up-to-date technical knowledge of television technology would know that QLED had no standard definition and would know that Samsung’s QLED TVs, as referred to in their advertising, used photo-luminescent quantum dot technology and would therefore not be misled by that. They believed no consumer who had researched what QLED meant prior to purchase would be led to believe that QLED was a TV that uses electro-luminescent quantum dot technology They would either be informed about Samsung’s QLED TV technology only, or be informed that QLED meant any type of television that used quantum dot technology, of which Samsung’s QLED TVs were one. They considered only consumers with detailed but out-of-date technical knowledge of television technology would be confused by the use of QLED to describe photo-luminescent quantum dot technology. However, they believed there was no evidence to suggest that such a consumer existed and that they would not be reasonably well informed, observant or circumspect or be described as an average consumer.

Finally, they said they did not consider their advertising to be misleading because there were no televisions that used electro-luminescent quantum dot technology available to purchase. Experts believed the use of electro-luminescent quantum dot technology in televisions was many years away, if likely to be developed at all. Also, they did not claim that its QLED TVs use electro-luminescent quantum dot technology.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA understood quantum dot technology in the context of television technology was an emerging technology and electro-luminescent quantum dot technology specifically was still in development and had yet to be released as a final product on the commercial market. The complainant believed because electro-luminescent quantum dot displays were still in development, Samsung’s use of ‘QLED’ to describe their quantum dot technology was misleading. We noted Samsung’s view that their quantum dot technology, described as QLED in the ad, was a new TV technology with specific advantages over LED-lit LCD display.

We considered because quantum dot technology was an emerging technology most consumers were unlikely to understand what quantum dot or QLED technology was. Further, we considered those consumers who were aware of what quantum dot technology was would also be aware that Samsung’s QLED TV did not use electro-luminescent display technology. They were also likely to be aware that electro-luminescent display technology had not been released on the commercial market and therefore would not be materially misled by Samsung’s use of the term QLED in their advertising.

We considered most consumers would understand from the ad that the advertised QLED TVs would provide advantages or benefits over existing TV technology. We understood that the television did offer specific advantages including 100% colour volume and high brightness and contrast. For these reasons, we concluded that the Samsung’s use of the term QLED was unlikely to mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, theĀ  medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (Misleading Advertising), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.3    


More on