- German court orders TCL to stop advertising and selling QLED TVs
- Complaints from competing companies allege misleading advertising
- Standardized certification could help buyers
TCL has been ordered to stop selling some of its televisions in Germany. A Munich court ruled that TCL violated the country’s unfair competition law by advertising QLED TVs that “do not offer the color reproduction expected of QLED TVs,” as reported by the Korea Times.
The court’s decision means that TCL can no longer advertise or sell specific QLED TV models in Germany.
The case was filed by Samsung, which claimed TCL was running misleading advertising, and other lawsuits on the same subject are underway in other countries, including the United States.
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The lawsuits all make the same claim: that what TCL calls a QLED is not a QLED as commonly understood, and that consumers are therefore wrongly sold TVs.
Quantum dot tests haven’t found much
The court found that TCL’s quantum dot TVs, such as the QLED870 series available in Germany, did not offer the characteristics of a quantum dot LED and therefore consumers had been misled.
This isn’t the first time claims have been made that TCL’s quantum dots don’t deliver the goods. In late 2024, South Korean news site ET News published details of tests that failed to detect chemicals needed to make quantum dots on TCL quantum dot TVs.
The tests were commissioned by the South Korean chemical company Hansol Chemical (which, it should be noted, works with Samsung, a key rival of TCL, and which heavily promoted the results of these tests while launching the trial) and carried out by SGS of Geneva and the British company Intertek.
According to ET News (via Google Translate), “no indium (In) or cadmium (Cd) was detected in three models of TCL QD TVs.” Indium and cadmium are essential materials that cannot be omitted for QD implementation… if neither is present, QD technology cannot be said to have been applied. You can see the test results here.
TCL disputed the findings – “The QD content may vary depending on the supplier, but it certainly contains cadmium,” it responded – and published its own tests, including a test carried out by SGS, the same company that carried out tests for Hansol.
The results contradicted Hansol Chemical’s tests, but those tests used a different methodology: while TCL’s tests focused on TCL’s quantum dot films, the tests Hansol commissioned focused on finished TCL TVs.
It seems very unlikely that TCL will get away with selling quantum dot TVs that contain no quantum dots at all, and the performance of TCL’s QLED displays in our tests has been consistent with the specs and color performance listed, regardless of the technology used inside to get there, within the usual margins of error we expect when we go from marketing claims to real-world use.
Hansol Chemical filed a complaint against TCL with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging false advertising, and TCL also faces class action lawsuits in several U.S. states making the same claim. TCL is not alone here: Hisense has also been targeted in the United States.
The claims and counterclaims indicate a problem with TV technology: without independent certification, we must accept manufacturers’ claims with confidence. And in Germany at least, the court ruled that TCL made promises it didn’t keep.
Although independent certification can help consumers, currently everything is very confusing: Germany’s TÜV Rheinland granted official certification to both Samsung and TCL for quantum dot TVs, but for different things: Samsung was certified as “Real Quantum Dot Display” while TCL received “Realistic Visual Experience”.
TCL declined to comment for this article and we reached out to Samsung, but have yet to receive a response. We will keep you informed of any further responses.
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