New Delhi: India’s apex consumer watchdog has decided to initiate an inquiry into complaints alleging manufacturing defects in China’s Oppo Reno 5 series smartphones, according to two government officials aware of the matter.
The department of consumer affairs has been examining complaints registered through the National Consumer Helpline alleging defects in smartphones made by Oppo Guangdong Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd, including an issue with lines appearing on the screen.
Oppo ranked third in India’s smartphone market with a 14% share in the April-June quarter, behind Vivo and Samsung, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research.
India has increased scrutiny of Chinese smartphone makers. In a July 2023 Rajya Sabha reply, the government said companies including Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme and OnePlus had faced customs-duty and GST-evasion cases. Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Realme are smartphone brands owned by BBK Electronics.
As part of the inquiry, senior executives of the Chinese phonemaker will be asked to present their case and provide details on the complaints and the steps taken to address them, the first person said.
Appropriate compensation
“Some buyers who approached the company’s service centres were provided with replacement handsets, citing internal defects. The purpose of the inquiry is to ascertain the extent of the problem and how many defective phones remain with consumers,” said the second person. “Since the issue relates to an alleged manufacturing defect, the inquiry will help determine how affected consumers can be appropriately compensated.”
The inquiry comes as smartphone shipments in India fell 10% from a year earlier and the share of Chinese brands in the country dropped to its lowest for the April-June quarter since 2020.
“Any finding of a systemic manufacturing defect could have implications not only for consumer compensation but also for product-quality standards, after-sales service and consumer trust in Chinese smartphone brands,” said Amit Singh, a strategic expert and associate professor at the Special Centre for National Security Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
According to Prabhu Ram, vice president, industry research group, at CyberMedia Research, the inquiry signals a shift in regulatory focus toward post-warranty display failures, once treated as a routine service matter.
“A manufacturing-linked defect persisting five years after launch, particularly following software updates, raises real questions on quality control and product longevity,” said Ram. “For Oppo, how the Reno 5 enquiry is handled will likely shape after-sales perceptions more than the enquiry itself.”
Manufacturers adopting transparent, extended free-repair frameworks such as OnePlus’s lifetime green-line coverage and Samsung’s multi-year replacement programmes have been more effective at limiting reputational and legal exposure, Ram said.
Queries sent on Tuesday to the Oppo spokesperson, Tasleem Arif, managing director and head of R&D at Oppo India, the department of consumer affairs and the ministry of electronics and information technology remained unanswered until publishing time.