Samsung Galaxy S24

55

100

11

20

25

63.6

5

20

0

0

20

60

100

12

20

20

100

4

20

Korean

삼성전자 2025년 지속가능경영보고서

Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report 2025

2025

samsung_kim_yong_chul_whistleblower

Samsung whistleblower and hidden-accounts investigation

Partially verified

Former senior Samsung legal executive Kim Yong-chul alleged that Samsung maintained slush funds and used them to bribe prosecutors, public officials and other influential figures.

Disclosures 2007; special-prosecutor findings and conviction 2008; pardon 2009

Kim's disclosures triggered a special-prosecutor investigation. The investigation established hidden accounts and tax evasion, and former Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee was convicted of tax evasion and received a suspended prison sentence and a fine. The special prosecutor did not substantiate the broader alleged bribery network.

The existence and full extent of the alleged bribery network were not established by that investigation. The proven hidden-account and tax offences must not be inflated into proof of every allegation Kim made.

Samsung Group governance and its former chairman, 2007–2009. This is not a finding about every current Samsung Electronics employee or a particular Galaxy device.

2026-09-12

samsung_union_busting_final_judgment

Samsung union-busting court record

Verified

Samsung executives and Samsung Electronics Service officials participated in an organized effort to neutralize a labour union at the service subsidiary.

Conduct centered on 2013; indictments 2018; final Supreme Court judgment 2021-02-04

South Korea's Supreme Court upheld guilty convictions of multiple Samsung executives and officials in 2021. Samsung's own business report records confirmed prison or suspended-prison sentences and a fine against Samsung Electronics Service. The Supreme Court separately confirmed former Samsung Electronics board chair Lee Sang-hoon's acquittal because evidence used against him had been obtained illegally.

The judgments establish responsibility for the people and entities convicted; they do not justify treating every Samsung manager or current workplace as responsible for the same conduct.

Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics Service labour-union conduct centered on 2013, with final Supreme Court rulings in 2021.

2026-09-12

Union members & service workers

Samsung Electronics Service technicians, organisers and their families

Conduct centered on 2013; final judgment 2021-02-04

A group-level strategy used surveillance and personal information, pressure to leave the union, wage and employment tactics and other measures to neutralize union activity. South Korea's Supreme Court upheld convictions of multiple Samsung executives and officials.

Final court-backed finding concerning Samsung Electronics and its service subsidiary, centered on conduct in 2013. Former Samsung Electronics board chair Lee Sang-hoon was ultimately acquitted because the evidence used against him was obtained illegally.

Semiconductor & display workers

Workers with occupational diseases and the families of workers who died after employment at Samsung chip and display plants

Dispute from 2007; formal apology and settlement 2018-11-23

Samsung formally apologized after a decade-long dispute, acknowledging that it had not fully managed potential health risks or addressed affected workers promptly. The settlement included a compensation scheme for work-related diseases.

Company-level occupational-health finding and remedy concerning Samsung semiconductor and display production lines; it does not establish the cause of every individual illness or describe conditions at every present-day facility.

Public trust & democratic institutions

South Korean citizens, public institutions and people relying on accountable corporate political conduct

Bribery case 2017–2021; parole 2021; pardon 2022; separate merger-case acquittal finalized 2025-07-17

Samsung Electronics chair Lee Jae-yong served 18 months in prison after a separate bribery conviction involving payments to former President Park Geun-hye and her confidante. He was paroled in 2021 and pardoned in 2022. This is evidence of serious political-corruption harm, not proof that Samsung or South Korea is literally a dictatorship.

Final bribery conviction concerning Lee Jae-yong. A separate financial-crimes case about the 2015 Samsung affiliates merger ended in a final acquittal in 2025 and is not presented as proven wrongdoing.

People

Artisanal miners, children and their families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cobalt extraction can involve hazardous, life-threatening work, child labour, unstable income and weak access to remedy.

Electronics-sector risk. It is not proof that cobalt in this exact device came from an abusive mine.

Mine-affected peoples

Workers, Indigenous peoples and communities across cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, rare-earth and 3TG supply chains

Electronics mineral supply chains can carry intertwined risks involving labour rights, armed conflict, corruption, land, water, pollution and taxation. A recycled-content percentage does not by itself prove that the remaining primary material is harm-free.

Sector-wide critical-minerals risk covering more than cobalt. Exact attribution requires mine, processor, smelter and chain-of-custody evidence for the device.

Children & e-waste workers

Children, pregnant workers and families working or living near informal electronics recycling and dumpsites

Unsafe e-waste recycling can release lead, mercury, cadmium, flame retardants and other toxic substances. WHO links exposure with lifelong neurological, respiratory, reproductive and other health harms, and estimates millions of children and women may be at risk.

Global end-of-life sector evidence. It is not proof that this exact discarded device reached a named dumpsite; company take-back, repair and verified downstream recycling evidence is assessed separately.

Repairers & consumers

Device owners, lower-income households and independent repair businesses

Parts pairing, software locks, unavailable manuals or parts and repair-hostile design can raise costs, reduce choice and push working products toward replacement. The FTC found scant evidence for many broad manufacturer justifications for repair restrictions.

Sector and market evidence, especially mobile devices. The listing's repairability and parts evidence shows whether this product and manufacturer reduce or reproduce that harm.

Users & civil society

Users, journalists, activists, dissidents and communities disproportionately targeted by surveillance

Devices, platforms and private surveillance technologies can enable tracking, censorship, harassment and interference with privacy, expression, association and assembly when safeguards and accountability fail.

Technology-sector human-rights risk. A company is marked only where its policies, product conduct, contracts, enforcement records or documented use establish responsibility.

Civilians & targeted communities

Civilians, humanitarian workers and communities affected by military, intelligence, policing or occupation-linked technology

Drones, cloud services, communications, AI and surveillance systems can contribute to targeting, repression or denial of essential services. Those consequences must be shown alongside any documented corporate contract or deployment.

Sector-level pathway, not an allegation against every electronics brand. Company attribution requires evidence of a relevant contract, system, use or failure of human-rights due diligence.

Communities receiving waste

Communities and ecosystems where discarded electronics are dumped, burned or processed without adequate controls

The world generated 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022 and only 22.3% was documented as properly collected and recycled. Uncontrolled disposal can pollute air, soil, aquifers and drinking water while transferring health costs to communities with the least protection.

Global sector evidence. A brand's downstream responsibility depends on verified collection volumes, reuse, recycler standards and export or disposal records - not the existence of a take-back webpage alone.

workers_human_rights

Workers & human rights

Workers & human rights

20

Does the company prevent forced and child labour, protect worker voice and safety, and provide remedy when harm occurs?

resolved

46

9.2

KnowTheChain scored Samsung 46/100 for action and disclosure on forced-labour risks. Separately, South Korea's Supreme Court upheld convictions of multiple Samsung executives and officials for organized union-busting, and Samsung apologized to workers affected by occupational diseases at chip and display plants. These records do not establish an abuse-free supply chain.

Company and global supply chain

2018 / 2021 / 2022

minerals_congo

Conflict minerals & Congo

Conflict minerals & Congo

20

Can the company trace high-risk minerals, show independent due diligence, improve conditions in the DRC, and remedy harm rather than merely avoid it?

resolved

40

8

Amnesty traced cobalt from hazardous DRC artisanal mining through processors toward battery makers reported to supply Samsung and found that brands could not establish that their cobalt was free of child labour. Samsung SDI later improved due diligence, but disclosure gaps remained. The reviewed sources establish a serious supply-chain risk and traceability failure, not a named fatality in this exact Galaxy device's cobalt chain.

Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI cobalt due diligence; not physical traceability of this Galaxy device

2016 / 2017

not_established

privacy_digital_rights

Privacy & digital rights

Privacy & digital rights

20

Does the company protect privacy, freedom of expression and users from surveillance, censorship and abusive data practices?

resolved

28

5.6

The 2026 World Benchmarking Alliance Ranking Digital Rights assessment scores Samsung 28/100 across governance, freedom of expression and privacy.

Company policies and practices

2026

corporate_accountability

Corporate conduct & accountability

Corporate conduct & accountability

20

Does the company act transparently on tax, lobbying, corruption, discrimination and misconduct; do its public claims reconcile with underlying records; and does it provide meaningful accountability and remedy?

resolved

63.4

12.68

The 2026 World Benchmarking Alliance Social Benchmark scores Samsung 63.4/100. That benchmark result must be read beside the final bribery conviction of Samsung Electronics chair Lee Jae-yong and the older whistleblower-triggered hidden-accounts and tax-evasion case; it does not erase those records.

Company-wide

2008 / 2021 / 2026