Kommersant learned about the supply of LG TVs to Russia from Poland

LG TVs assembled at the company's plant in Poland appeared in Russian stores, Kommersant writes. Equipment is imported through Belarus through parallel imports. Formally LG sanctionsdoes not violateexperts say

At the Polish plant of the South Korean company LG, software for Smart TV adapted to the Russian market is being installed on TVs, Kommersant found out.

These TVs are preinstalled, for example, with the Alisa voice assistant, as well as the Wink, Okko, and Kinopoisk applications. There will be no Russian applications on an unadapted Smart TV: only Prime Video, Netflix and others, the F + tech - Marvel company, which also supplies electronics, explained to the newspaper. They put the standard shell of Android TV, depending on the region.

The fact that LG TVs from Poland with a working version of Smart TV are supplied to electronics stores was also told by the administrator of one of the Moscow stores selling LG equipment. The newspaper notes that the store on the Russian website of the vendor is listed as an LG branded store. The equipment is adapted to the requirements of Russian legislation, the Kommersant correspondent was convinced: the TVs are preinstalled with the Kinopoisk, Wink, Okko and other applications. The TVs also support the Alisa voice assistant.

These TVs are assembled on the line of the plant in Mlawa, where they have created a separate line for assembling TVs for the CIS market, including RUSSIA, the source said. According to the newspaper's source in the electronics market, major electronics manufacturers do not make separate firmware for other CIS countries, except for Russia.

By assembling TVs adapted for the Russian market, the Polish plant LG does not formally violate the sanctions, Mergen Doraev, partner at the EMPP Law Office, believes. However, according to him, if the plant then provides some consulting services to support such software on their devices, the company may have problems, from fines to criminal cases.

The interlocutor of the publication in the electronics market drew attention to the fact that the operation of Smart TV in a particular region depends on the policy of the manufacturer. So, according to him, Samsung used to block TV sets in Russia that were not intended for this region in order to prevent illegal import of devices. The same schemes, according to him, can be used to block the operation of devices not intended for Russia.

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The manufacturer of large household appliances LG Electronics announced the suspension of all deliveries to Russia in March 2022, and the work of the company's plant near Moscow in Ruza was also stopped. The company did not announce a full withdrawal from Russia, but said it "will be closely monitoring developments." According to the results of the six months after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine , the market share of LG TVs in Russia fell by half - from 21.6% to 10.1%, Kommersant wrote. In October, the newspaper reported, citing sources, that the South Korean company was negotiating the transfer of factory facilities to a plant in Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan, but the company denied these plans.