Samsung Faces $15.1 Million Fine Over Galaxy GOS Throttling

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined Samsung 20.1 billion won, about $15.1 million, over how it marketed the gaming performance of the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Tab S8. The decision revives the Game Optimizing Service (GOS) controversy, four years after it first erupted.

The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS applied preset CPU and GPU limits to certain demanding games. Samsung rejects that conclusion and describes GOS as a legitimate way to manage heat.

What the regulator objects to

Phones routinely slow down when they get hot. According to the FTC, GOS went further: it applied fixed ceilings as soon as certain games launched, regardless of device temperature. Some limits reportedly held maximum clock speeds to around 30% of what the hardware could reach.

The issue surfaced in 2022, when users found roughly 10,000 app identifiers inside GOS, although inclusion did not prove every app was throttled. Popular benchmark tools appeared to be exempt. Geekbench recorded sharply lower scores when its test was disguised as an ordinary app, and it responded by delisting four generations of Galaxy S phones. Samsung later added a performance-priority mode that relaxed the limits.

Why it came back

The affair produced eight lawsuits in South Korea, the United States and Israel, and none ended with a judgment awarding damages to consumers. Samsung cites that as proof the matter was settled. In Korea, a trial court found some advertising could mislead buyers into expecting unrestricted top speeds, but it dismissed the claims because plaintiffs hadn't proved personal losses or that each used an affected game. The appeal ended in court-ordered mediation.

Those cases asked whether individual buyers could prove harm. The FTC instead examined whether the marketing could distort purchasing decisions, a different test.

Samsung says GOS balanced heat with sustained gaming speeds, a challenge every manufacturer faces. It argues the FTC treated preset clock ceilings as proof of a worse experience without showing their effect on real frame rates, and it points to the closed lawsuits and the absence of similar penalties abroad.

The fine is tentative and creates no refunds for Galaxy owners. Samsung plans to challenge it, so a court may ultimately decide whether the company had to disclose that some games couldn't reach the advertised maximum.