TCL sued Samsung for calling software-dimming TVs 'Mini LED' without real local dimming

In late August 2026 TCL sued Samsung in the US District Court for the Central District of California, accusing its longtime rival of fraud for marketing its M70H, M80H and M90H televisions — priced from $300 for a 43-inch to $2,300 for a 100-inch — as Mini LED sets. TCL says the models are recycled, pre-existing low-end standard LED televisions, Samsung's entry-level Crystal UHD line re-labelled as Mini LED, containing none of the technology associated with Mini LED, including full array local dimming. Samsung said only that it intends to vigorously defend the suit.

The documentary crux is Samsung's fine print. M-series pages advertise Supreme Mini LED Dimming, but the spec sheets carry a footnote: it is software-based, not full-array hardware-based technology. Software dimming analyzes each frame to boost perceived contrast while the backlight stays uniformly bright — unlike full array local dimming (FALD), where thousands of individually controlled LED zones actually change brightness. The same term appears on Neo QLED pages that TCL accepts as true Mini LED, with no footnote.

Industry analysts told Ars Technica that FALD is treated as mandatory for the Mini LED label: Counterpoint's research director said Mini LED 'was originally introduced as an improved FALD technology', and Yole Intelligence's displays principal said 'a software-based Mini LED dimming just doesn't make any sense' without a 2D LED array. Samsung's own website defines Mini LED as using tiny LEDs 'for more precise backlight control through local dimming zones' — the feature TCL says the M-series lacks.

A federal false-advertising suit over one of Samsung's core TV marketing terms, with its M-series labeling under scrutiny.

Samsung put the Mini LED badge on budget sets whose own spec sheets describe their dimming as software-based rather than the hardware local dimming the term implies.

Mini LED carries a price premium and positions a TV against genuine FALD competitors like TCL's QM-series, so the label has direct commercial value.

There is no agreed industry standard for what qualifies as Mini LED, leaving each manufacturer to define the term — until a court or regulator does.

TCL, which sells FALD-based Mini LED TVs, sued to defend the term's meaning and its own product differentiation against cheaper re-badged competition.

A spec sheet footnote can undo a marketing category: if your own documentation defines the technology out of the product, rivals and courts will read it that way.

Samsung declined to answer questions on the suit's specific claims and said it would defend vigorously; the case was pending in the Central District of California. The dispute sits beside TCL's own naming defeats — a German court barred TCL from calling some TVs 'QLED' in Samsung's challenge — underscoring that TV backlight trademarks are being fought jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Analysts noted the deeper cost falls on shoppers, since no standard defines the term and spec-sheet footnotes are the only disclosure.