Samsung rejects claim that its TVs can detect energy efficiency tests

Unless you have been living under a rock, then you have probably heard about Volkswagen fitting its cars with devices that could detect when emissions were being tested and then skew the test results in its favor. It seems that Samsung is now under the spotlight, as it stands accused in Europe of similar practices on its TVs that utilize the "motion lighting" feature - an accusation it "firmly" denies.

In a statement to ITV News, Samsung said:

"We firmly reject the accusation that one of our TV settings has been designed to deliver a misleading power performance in regulatory lab tests. Motion lighting is not a setting that only activates during compliance testing."

The confusion comes along with the testing parameters for electronics, that do not take into account features like "motion lighting" under normal use. This is an out-of-box feature that is enabled by default, rather than it being enabled for the sole purpose of defeating the energy efficiency test. Consumers who wish to disable the feature must do so manually. Not quite the 'Volkswagen of electronics' there, as some media outlets have reported.

The accusations come from an alliance of ten unnamed organizations in Europe who set out to see whether the energy consumption claims of TVs are accurate. According to the researchers, results from lab tests - which were only made available this afternoon, according to ITV - "give the impression" that some TVs detected a test situation... and could therefore adapt to lower energy consumption readings.

Or to put it in layman terms, the researchers misunderstood the "motion lighting" feature all together.

It seems that the VW scandal has opened a can of worms for energy-conscious organizations who claim that "mis-sold appliances cut expected household energy savings by an estimated 10% in Europe. Lost savings.. equate to about 10.6bn euros".

However, a new set of tests by the same alliance is about to get underway which aims to check whether the energy efficiency test results given for appliances are a proper reflection of power usage when we get them home. But in any case, if you own a Samsung TV, you probably shouldn't read too much into what some media outlets are (inaccurately) reporting today.

Source: ITV News | Image via Samsung