LG Electronics is again moving to restructure its Australian communications operation, appointing WPP agency Ogilvy PR to the account, the third WPP-linked arrangement to handle the South Korean manufacturer’s local reputation in under two decades and an agency Samsung rejected.

It replaces an arrangement centred on LG-One, the WPP-created unit built specifically to service LG globally since 2009, and responsible for LG’s day to day Australian media relations since 2016.

The appointment lands while the company is dealing with a Federal Circuit and Family Court action naming its managing director, a smart TV data controversy that forced a global response, and a New Zealand criminal ruling that put its regional chain of command under judicial scrutiny.

Smart TV Data Claims Force Global Response

LG was forced to issue a global statement at the weekend responding to allegations first reported in Australia by ChannelNews concerning smart TV voice and viewing data practices.

The company rejected claims that its televisions continuously transmit ambient audio, and defended its use of automatic content recognition and voice processing technology.

The issue remains live internationally, where smart TV data collection and the advertising technology built on it have drawn sustained regulatory and media attention.

Court Action Names Managing Director

LG Electronics Australia and its managing director, Dan Lim, are respondents to a general protections application filed in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia by the company’s former human resources director, Amanda Jackson.

The application was filed in the Sydney registry in March 2025 under file number SYG775/2025. It alleges bullying and harassment, and that Jackson was dismissed after raising complaints about workplace practices at the company’s Parramatta operation.

LG Electronics Australia and Lim have filed a defence. The allegations are untested and the court has made no findings.

Lim has been managing director of LG Electronics Australia and New Zealand since February 2020, succeeding Youngik Lee.

New Zealand Ruling Exposed Regional Command Structure

A separate New Zealand criminal matter has produced judicial findings about how LG’s regional business is run.

In October 2024, Auckland District Court Judge B A Gibson dealt with LG’s former New Zealand country manager, Dowan Kim, on a charge of obstructing the course of justice. Kim had passed on an instruction to LG New Zealand staff to delete messages ahead of a Commerce Commission data collection in September 2020.

The Commerce Commission had been investigating alleged anticompetitive conduct in the supply of consumer televisions. That investigation ended with no charges against LG, and the judge noted that nothing recovered from the reconstructed material led to any charges.

Kim pleaded guilty and was granted a discharge without conviction under section 106 of the Sentencing Act 2002, which is deemed in law to be an acquittal. His application for permanent name suppression was refused.

The ruling contains findings relevant to LG’s Australian operation. The judge found the New Zealand business was in effect a branch of the Australian company, and that while Kim technically reported to the Australian managing director, control in practice was exercised by the chief financial officer.

Judge Gibson accepted that Kim passed on an instruction he must have known was unlawful, and said that having heard evidence about the hierarchical basis on which the company was run, he was not persuaded the outcome would have been different had Kim been given time to consider it.

Parts of the ruling are subject to a publication prohibition under sections 200 and 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011.

Two Decades Of Regulatory History

LG Electronics Australia has a documented record with the consumer regulator.

In 2019 the Federal Court imposed A$160,000 in penalties on the company for misleading consumers about their consumer guarantee rights.

In 2006 the Federal Court declared that LG had made false or misleading representations about statutory warranties and remedies in mobile phone documentation.

Following earlier action, the company’s public facing press statements were subject to legal vetting, a constraint an LG-One account manager acknowledged in 2018 had restricted marketing programs. The same account manager said the operation had been under resourced.

LG-One at that time declined to deal with ChannelNews and its publisher 4Square Media over coverage of the ACCC’s scrutiny of LG’s business practices.

Structural Weakness In The Local Operation

The shape of LG’s Australian communications has been a recurring point of criticism.

WPP consolidated LG’s global PR business into LG-One in 2009, drawing on agencies including Hill+Knowlton and Ogilvy, after LG ended its relationship with Burson-Marsteller. Industry accounts from the period describe the arrangement as being directed from Korea, limiting the development of a local communications strategy.

That dependence deepened in 2016 when internal communications director Philip Anderson departed and was not directly replaced, leaving LG-One responsible for media relations. Samsung, by contrast, has retained substantial in house PR capability in Australia alongside its agency arrangements.

Operational lag has also drawn criticism. When LG launched the Wing smartphone globally on a Tuesday in 2020, Australian media material was distributed roughly 38 hours later, after international outlets had already reported the product extensively.

A 2024 ChannelNews assessment characterised the local approach as reliant on globally produced material, with limited local events, advance briefings or targeted media engagement.

Local marketing sits under LG Electronics Australia marketing director Gemma Lemieux, appointed in 2019.

Questions Over Who Is Billing The Account

The change comes as WPP works through a major restructure and financial pressure.

That raises questions about which WPP entity will bill the LG account, how much of the Australian work will be serviced offshore, and why LG has stayed inside the WPP stable after nearly two decades of the same complaints resurfacing.