S. Korea finds 378 firms falsifying communications equipment records

South Korea revoked conformity assessments on about 1,696 pieces of communications equipment from 378 companies, including those from Samsung Electronics Co. and China's Huawei Technologies Co. for falsified test records.

Under the country's radio wave law, companies should check the impact of their communications equipment on other equipment and the human body, through conformity assessments before manufacturing, selling, or importing them.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said that the companies submitted test reports supposedly issued by the US office of the Bay Area Compliance Laboratories (BACL), a global testing and certification organization.

But a closer look revealed that these were in fact from its Chinese offices.

South Korea acknowledges test results from the US-based BACL but not by the organization's Chinese offices.

While the companies argued they were not involved in fabricating the test records, the assessments were still up for cancellation regardless of their intent.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said the equipment would not be allowed for distribution and the companies will be barred from receiving new conformity assessments for the said equipment for a year.

It was the first time for the ministry to cancel conformity assessments.

Chinese closed-circuit TV camera maker Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Tech Co. submitted the most false records with 224. Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co. came in at second with 145, followed by Huawei with 136.

Samsung Electronics was 10th with 23 false records.