Australia's competition regulator said on Thursday a court has ordered the local unit of Samsung Electronics to pay a penalty of AUD 14 million over misleading claims about a water-resistance feature in some of its smartphones.

Samsung Australia admitted to misleading buyers of some of its 'Galaxy' phones about the water-resistance level, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said. The regulator first sued the company in July 2019.

The regulator said that between March 2016 and October 2018, the company ran in-store and social media advertisements that claimed the phones could be used in pools or seawater. © Reuters