LG Electronics Inc. had attempted to pay for favorable reviews of its new smartphone model LG G2, a potentially compromising revelation that could taint the long-anticipated product launch of the South Korean tech company, a tech news website said Monday.

John Giggs of TechCrunch claimed that he recently received an email from a member of LG’s Korean PR agency Burson Marsteller, asking for a review of the LG G2 in exchange for an unspecified amount of money.

Giggs said the offer included an in-depth review of certain features of the phone, or “a wild and crazy 1:1 comparison against many devices,” a proposal he said was extremely rare.

“I’ve never seen such an egregious offering of payola in all the years I’ve been writing for tech sites,” he said, adding that readers should not assume that all phone reviews are influenced in such a manner.

Giggs expressed his concern that this incident may cripple LG’s latest phone model before it even hits the market. “So enjoy this, LG. The G2 is now tainted and will probably sink,” he said.

LG G2 is slated for release in New York on Wednesday local time.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)