Smartphone makers Samsung and Oppo have been dragged to court over memory consuming pre-installed apps that are hard to remove.
The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission launched separate cases against the smartphone makers after a study conducted on 20 smartphones found phones like the Galaxy Note 3 could contain up to 44 pre-installed programmes
The study also found that the Samsung SM-N9008S has 44 pre-installed apps that were difficult to uninstall.
In Samsung, some of the pre-installed apps included electronic dictionary and online shopping programmes.
One of the Oppo’s phone tested contained up to 47 apps including gaming apps that could not be uninstalled, with the apps consuming data with each update.
Shanghai Daily reported commission secretary-general Tao Ailian as saying: "The litigation is our latest attempt to safeguard consumers’ rights after other methods failed, without elaborating on what other steps had been taken."
"We hope it will force other companies in the sector to end the unreasonable, but common, practice of pre-installing apps without telling consumers.
"This is something that is very much necessary for the healthy development of the whole industry."
The legal action is seeking a ruling that will make the companies legally obliged to inform about the apps on the packaging of their smartphones.
