On Sunday, two bloggers from India claimed that Samsung threatened to strand them at the IFA trade show in Berlin if they did not work with the company to promote its products. The two bloggers claim they won a contest to attend and cover the trade show at Samsung's expense, but also say they told Samsung ahead of time they would be covering the event as independent bloggers, and that they would not help with any marketing activities.
The bloggers claim that after they arrived in Berlin and discovered that they were indeed expected to work for the company, they were told by a Samsung rep that their tickets home would be cancelled, and they would have to pay for their own flights back to India.
Today, Samsung has sent emails to the press and personally contacted the individuals at the center of the furore. The Next Web has received copies of both emails. The public statement has Samsung claiming that all of this was just a "misunderstanding" between the company and the two bloggers.
The email sent to one of the bloggers, Clinton Jeff, is a bit different. Samsung states:
I would like to reach out to you and deeply apologize to you for your experience in Berlin at IFA. We put you through undue hardship and we are trying to rectify the situation.
As we reported before, Jeff claims that Nokia came in and offered to pay for the rest of their IFA trip and their flight back home. We just hope that Nokia's offer didn't come with any more strings.
Source: The Next Web
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