Samsung May Have to Stop Shipping Smartphones in Russia

Samsung is going through some tough times in Russia. According to an allegation raised by Russian courts, Samsung has to halt exports in the country for some 61 devices running Samsung Pay.

According to reports, there is a heated legal battle suggesting “Samsung Pay violates a patent of Swiss-based mobile payments company Sqwin Sa.” Samsung, which is still not legally halted to ship its devices in the country, has already appealed against the initial decision.

It’s interesting to note that this isn’t some recent matter. This case has been in the scenes since 2013 “when Victor Gulchenko filed a patent for an online transaction system which was then registered on April 2019 and granted to Sqwin Sa.” While it’s to note that Samsung introduced Samsung Pay in 2015, which took almost a year to reach Russia.

Samsung Pay is one of the most used contactless payment systems in Russia with 17% of transactions, following Apple Pay (30%) and Google Pay (32%). According to legal experts, Apple Pay and Google Pay may also fall into this trap.