MOSCOW, December 26 (Sputnik) — The headquarters of LG Electronics in Seoul were raided on Friday in relation to earlier claims by Samsung Electronics that its washing machines were vandalized, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Documents and hard disks, secured by a group of investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office during the raid on LG's main office, are expected to shed light on the incident. Prosecutors also inspected LG Electronics' home appliances factory in Changwon, South Korea as part of the inquiry, according to the Yonhap.
In September, Samsung brought the case to the South Korean Prosecutors' Office, claiming that several LG senior employees, in particular, home appliances department president Jo Seong-jin, were damaging the door hinges of premium Samsung washing machines at retail shops in Berlin, Germany.
Samsung also provided the prosecutors with footage of the incident from security cameras located next to one of the shops as evidence, Business Korea reported Monday.
LG & Samsung clash over washing machine "vandalism" http://t.co/2eTZjUc6c7
— GC Magazine (@GC_Team) 15 сентября 2014
The raid took place amid a longstanding and intensifying rivalry between the two companies. The "washing machine row" is especially significant, coming just before an international consumer electronics and home appliances show at Las Vegas in January that both LG and Samsung will take part in.
This case is characteristic of the disputes that arise from time to time between Samsung and LG. In September and December 2012, OLED and LCD display technologies were subject of legal proceedings between the two companies.
