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Xiaomi gets sued in Beijing for delaying NFC support on Mi 5s Plus

Xiaomi's promise to bring NFC update to Mi 5s by the end of October did not happen, and now an upset user is suing the company for false information.
By
November 15, 2016
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With the introduction of Xiaomi’s very own mobile payment platform Mi Pay, NFC became an essential feature for the Chinese company. Mi Pay is particularly useful in its home turf since it can be used for public transport such as buses and metro. And that’s why when Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus back in September, they made sure to explain that full NFC capabilities would be coming to those devices by the end of October. Well, that most definitely did not happen, and now an upset Mi 5s Plus user is suing the Chinese company for false information.

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Mobile payment is a growing sector. We already have Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and Android Pay. And rumor has it, LG is looking to join in on the fun. That’s why Mi Pay is particularly important for Xiaomi. It differentiates itself by allowing customers in China to use it as bus and metro cards. Well, all that depends on a pretty big assumption: that Xiaomi will enable NFC support on its devices with a software update.

At the September event where Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus, it promised that these features would be enabled with the MIUI 8 update by the end of October. We are now half way through November, and the update is nowhere to be found.

According to a Beijing court, a man named Zhang, who bought the Mi 5s Plus thinking he could use Mi Pay starting November, is now suing the Chinese company for false advertising, and the court has already accepted his case. Apparently, Zhang asked for a refund and compensation after realizing that the MIUI 8 update was delayed but was unsuccessful and is now taking legal action against the company.

Apparently, Zhang asked for a refund and compensation after realizing that the MIUI 8 update was delayed but was unsuccessful and is now taking legal action against the company.

This isn’t the first time that Xiaomi got in a bit of trouble for false information and misleading advertisement. Two years ago, it was fined in Taiwan for giving an incorrect number of devices sold during its flash sales, and just last year, Xiaomi was found to have violated China’s strict advertising law prohibiting the use of superlatives. Though we will have to wait to see how Xiaomi will respond to the lawsuit, it’s definitely not good news for a company who’s been struggling to compete with companies like HUAWEI and OPPO.