The UAE News report: Qatar becomes the first country in the Gulf nations to recall the select models of LG TVs on the overheating issue.
Last year, South Korea, China and Europe announced recall campaigns on the same overheating problems.
Last month, Qatar’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced the recall of LG TV: OLED65E6 2016 model, OLED65B7, OLED65c&, OLED65E7, and OLED65W7 2017 TV model. The ministry said these models may overheat, causing some damage to the power supply or back cover, which may prevent normal TV operation.
It further said the recall campaign is part of the ongoing efforts of the ministry to protect consumers and ensure that dealers follow up on defects and repairs.
LG statement
In 2020, LG said it had launched the repair programme as the company detected some of the components had shown a performance drop, which could cause increases in current and potentially lead to overheating.
In July 2020, LG announced that it would offer free repairs for about 60,000 OLED TVs sold in Korea between 2016 and 2019 to replace the power board components.
European Commission concerns
The European Commission, which represents the interests of the EU, announced in 2020 that LG’s OLED TVs may have potential health and safety defects.
“During the operation, it is possible that the TV overheats which might cause certain damages to the power board or back cover preventing the normal operation of the TV. Potential burn/scald of finger in case of unintentional contact with the hot surface of TV back cover; Potential smoke inhalation from defected TV,” the European Commission wrote on its website.
At European Commission’s website, the investigation also notes state that the affected TVs were distributed in France, Greece, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Latvia.
TV industry
In 2020, TV makers hit hard as the global economy faced a deep recession due to the coronavirus pandemic. But it was a fact that more people are staying at home longer than before because of the rising trends of ‘work from home’ and virtual education. That’s the reason TV makers were expecting rising demand for TVs, specially high-priced ones.
Last year, TV manufacturers lost their chances to boost TV sales after mega sporting events such as the Tokyo Summer Olympics and the European Championship 2020 were postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they expect that the sales of their premium TVs will rise in the second half of 2020.
According to the latest data by research firm Omdia, the sales volume of OLED TVs in the second quarter of 2020 was bigger than expected thanks to increased sales of large televisions.
Samsung is the market leader
The global TV market grew slightly in 2020, but LG Electronics saw its sales and shipment decline. Market research firm Omdia in its recent report revealed that 225.35 million TVs were shipped in 2020, a rise of 1.1% from 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected sales in the first half but the market recovered in the second half. Major TV vendors except LG Electronics saw solid results in 2020.
Samsung Electronics ranked first and shipped 49.72 million units last year, a rise of 11.8% from 2019. It saw shipment growth in all quarters except the second quarter.
The company posted sales of US$32.7 billion in 2020, a rise of 0.4% from the previous year. Sales in the first half dropped year-on-year but Samsung saw growth in the second half.
Runner-up LG Electronics shipped 26.02 million units in 2020, a decline of 4.6% from the previous year. The company’s sales was US$16.9 billion, a drop of 1% year-on-year. LG saw shipment decline in all quarters except the third quarter. Even in the fourth quarter, when there are year’s end sales event such as Black Friday, the company shipped 1.2 million less units compared to 2019.
