Samsung and Oppo sued for loading their phones with Bloatware by the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission.

Bloatware is software that has unnecessary features and also uses large amounts of memory and RAM of the phone. The preloaded bloatware from the companies are often hard to uninstall or remove completely. Many of the apps preloaded are quite useless for some users and takes up the storage space without providing them any real utility.

The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission conducted a study of 20 smartphones and they have found several phones that were sold with preloaded apps and many of them could not be removed. The Shanghai Daily has reported that some apps can even steal the personal data of the phone.

Which smartphones of Samsung and Oppo found loaded with Bloatware?

Two of the phones founded offending by the Commission includes the Oppo Find 7A (Oppo X9007), which had 71 pre- installed apps and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Samsung SM-N9008S), which had 44 such pre- installed apps. Neither Samsung nor Oppo notified the buyer of the presence of the pre- installed apps which infringed the consumers’ rights to know. The bloatware on the Samsung phone included an online shopping program along with an electronic dictionary, whereas the Oppo phone came with many pre-installed games and other programs.

According to a report by the Shanghai Daily, Samsung and Oppo have nearly 15 days from the case’s acceptance date to enter a defense, after which the dates for trial would be declared. The lawsuit filed against Samsung and oppo for loading their phones with Bloatware is seeking a ruling from the court, according to which smartphone manufacturers will need to clearly mention on the product’s packaging what apps have been installed. They should also give instructions to the customers on how to remove unwanted apps.