The Samsung GOS lawsuit settlement was finalized on March 18, 2026, when a South Korean court’s compulsory mediation order took effect and required Samsung Electronics to compensate 1,882 Galaxy S22 buyers who sued over the company’s Game Optimizing Service. The exact payout per person was never disclosed publicly, and the resolution covers only the Korean plaintiffs who joined the case.1Chosun Ilbo. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Settlement Finalized
What Galaxy S22 Owners Are Getting
The court documents required Samsung to pay “a certain amount” to each of the 1,882 plaintiffs, but no Korean news outlet reported the specific per-person figure.1Chosun Ilbo. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Settlement Finalized
What is known is what the plaintiffs originally asked for. Each of the 1,882 consumers sought 300,000 Korean won, roughly $200, for a combined claim of about 622.5 million won.2Maeil Business Newspaper. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Court Ruling Whether the final mediated amount matched, exceeded, or fell below that request has not been reported.3SamMobile. GOS Controversy Ends Samsung Ordered To Pay Galaxy S22 Users Samsung did not publicly admit fault, and reporting indicated the company chose not to object to the mediation order in order to end the four-year dispute.4Chosun Biz. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Compulsory Mediation
Who Is Covered
Only the 1,882 South Korean consumers who joined the class-action lawsuit filed in March 2022 are entitled to compensation under this ruling. It does not extend to Samsung customers in the United States or any other country, and it is not an open claims process that other Galaxy S22 owners can join now.5Android Authority. Galaxy S22 GOS Compensation
How the Case Was Resolved
The path to the payout ran through two courts. On June 12, 2025, the Seoul Central District Court found that Samsung had engaged in “misleading labeling and advertising” but awarded no damages, concluding that plaintiffs had not shown the deceptive advertising caused them financial harm. Presiding Judge Kim Ji-hye reasoned that because GOS only activated during high-performance gaming and did not restrict everyday phone use, the throttling was “difficult to regard as a matter significantly affecting the purchasing decision of a mobile device.”6Asia Economy. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Lawsuit First Trial Ruling7Android Authority. Samsung Galaxy S22 Throttling GOS Court Win
The plaintiffs appealed. The Seoul High Court, Civil Division 12-1, under Judge Jang Seok-jo, recommended mediation at the first hearing in December 2025. Three sessions followed, and the parties could not reach a voluntary agreement.4Chosun Biz. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Compulsory Mediation
With talks stalled, the court used a compulsory mediation decision, an ex officio mechanism under South Korean civil procedure that lets a court impose settlement terms. If neither side objects within two weeks, the mediation carries the same legal force as a court settlement.8Asia Economy. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Compulsory Mediation Finalized The objection window closed on March 18, 2026, with neither Samsung nor the plaintiffs filing. The case was officially closed that day.1Chosun Ilbo. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Settlement Finalized
What the Lawsuit Was About
Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, was a preinstalled Android app on Galaxy devices that managed CPU and GPU performance to prevent overheating during extended gaming. Samsung described it as a safety feature. In practice, GOS lowered screen resolution and processing power when it detected certain apps.
Two problems drove the litigation. GOS applied performance limits to far more than just games. Users identified over 10,000 affected apps, including Netflix, Microsoft Office, LinkedIn, Zoom, and even Samsung’s own Samsung Pay and phone dialer.9PC Gamer. Samsung’s Game Optimization Service Might Be Throttling the Performance of Over 10,000 Apps At the same time, GOS did not throttle popular benchmarking apps like Geekbench and 3DMark, so Samsung’s devices posted benchmark scores that didn’t reflect real-world use.10Phone Arena. Samsung Throttling Smartphone Apps GOS A Korean YouTuber demonstrated the gap by renaming the 3DMark app so GOS treated it as the game Genshin Impact; the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s benchmark score dropped by more than half.
The Korean plaintiffs argued that Samsung had marketed Galaxy S22 phones as delivering “the fastest speed without restrictions” while failing to disclose GOS, and that this combination violated South Korea’s Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising.2Maeil Business Newspaper. Samsung Galaxy S22 GOS Court Ruling
Where U.S. Cases Stand
American Galaxy owners are not covered by the Korean ruling, and the U.S. cases have not produced a comparable payout.
The first U.S. case, filed in New Jersey on March 11, 2022, alleged Samsung misled consumers about the Galaxy S10, S20, S21, and S22 series by using GOS to throttle real-world app performance while leaving benchmark scores inflated. The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed it without prejudice on July 8, 2022, with no public explanation.11ClassAction.org. Samsung Phone Lagging Class Action Alleges the Company Misled Consumers on Speed and Performance
A second suit, Roeder et al v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (No. 2:22-cv-02057), was filed on April 8, 2022, also in the District of New Jersey. It alleged GOS throttled everyday apps like Netflix, TikTok, and Instagram while letting benchmarking tools run at full speed. Because many Samsung customers had agreed to arbitration clauses in their purchase terms, plaintiffs’ attorneys pursued a two-track strategy: a class action for consumers who had opted out of arbitration, and mass individual arbitration filings for everyone else. The class action portion has since been closed in federal court, and the mass arbitration proceedings were transferred to the firm Seeger Weiss, where they remain ongoing.12Hagens Berman. Samsung Galaxy Processor Slowdown