Tech giants Apple and Samsung have despatched authorized notices to Xiaomi after the Chinese language smartphone maker ran commercials immediately evaluating its newest flagship with their premium units. Based on folks aware of the matter, each corporations have issued cease-and-desist notices, objecting to what they see as ‘disparaging content material’ in Xiaomi’s marketing campaign.
A cease-and-desist discover is a proper authorized doc that asks an organization to instantly cease a sure exercise thought-about illegal or damaging.
“Evaluating specs is okay,” stated particular person conscious of the event. “However you shouldn’t immediately identify a selected competitor. As an alternative of that, you merely say ‘rivals’.”
Add Zee Enterprise as a Most well-liked Supply
Nevertheless, Xiaomi has not commented on the matter but.
The controversy started in April this yr when Xiaomi rolled out full-page newspaper advertisements that mocked Apple’s iPhone 16 Professional Max on April Fools’ Day, claiming its digital camera was no match for Xiaomi’s newly launched 15 Extremely.
Earlier in March, in the course of the India launch of the Xiaomi 15 sequence, the corporate ran one other advert calling the iPhone 16 Professional Max’s digital camera “cute” whereas highlighting its personal images strengths. Related campaigns additionally took intention at Samsung.
Apple and Samsung argue that such advertisements transcend truthful competitors and danger damaging their premium model picture, particularly in India the place each corporations dominate the high-end smartphone market.
This fashion of promoting, referred to as ambush advertising and marketing, is a tactic the place a model tries to realize consideration by associating itself with a rival product or model with out official permission.
Xiaomi, historically seen as a budget-friendly participant, has been pushing into the premium smartphone phase in India.
Based on Worldwide Information Company, Samsung led the Indian smartphone market with a 14.5 per cent share within the second quarter of 2025, adopted by Xiaomi with 9.6 per cent and Apple with 7.5 per cent.
Apple has additionally seen robust momentum, with shipments rising 21.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) within the first half (H1) of 2025 to succeed in 5.9 million models.
The iPhone 16 was essentially the most shipped mannequin in India, accounting for 4 per cent of complete smartphone gross sales in the course of the interval. Apple additionally opened its fourth retail retailer in Pune earlier this yr.
