Dyson, LG Electronics butt heads for 4th time

British electronics brand Dyson ignited a fourth round in its legal battle with LG Electronics over cordless vacuum cleaners.

“Dyson Technology Limited and Dyson Korea filed a suit against LG Electronics at the Seoul Central District Court regarding product information and advertising phrases on [LG’s] A9 cordless vacuum cleaner,” said Dyson in a statement released late Monday afternoon.

The move comes three months after the same court dismissed Dyson’s request to remove certain phrases from LG’s A9 advertisements regarding its performance, claiming they were “misleading and false.” Among the expressions Dyson disputed were “140 watts of suction capacity, the best available” and “16 times the spinning speed of jet engines.”

At the time, the court ruled in favor of LG saying that the phrases Dyson had questioned were quotes from professional authentication institutes and did not seem to mislead or confuse consumers or hurt fair competition.

Nonetheless, the British company insisted once more that “[marketing] phrases and advertisements influence consumers’ choice and therefore should be based on actual facts.”

“Dyson judged that some of the phrases and information are exaggerative and may mislead consumers. We filed the suit in order to better explain and prove this,” it said in a statement.

A spokesman explained that, this time, Dyson will prepare more data. It implied that Dyson has internal test results that do not match the expressions used on the A9 advertisements.

“We haven’t received an official petition yet,” said an LG Electronics spokesman. “Once it arrives, we’ll thoroughly read it through and come up with ways to counteract.”

If the case goes to court, it will be LG and Dyson’s fourth legal battle over cordless vacuum cleaners.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]