Despite consumers hating bloatware, smartphone OEMs have kept adding more and more of them to their smartphones with every new model they release. Not only does bloatware slow down a device greatly, it also occupies precious space on the internal storage of the device.

The problem is even worse in China, where thankfully, the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission has now decided to take an action against the leading culprits — Samsung and Oppo. The commission has filed a lawsuit against the companies for pre-loading a lot of unwanted apps on their phones, which cannot be uninstalled by owners as well.

The commission tested the Chinese variant of the Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N9008S) and found that it came with 44 pre-installed apps that could not be uninstalled. Oppo was even worse with its Find 7a (X9007), with 71 pre-installed apps that could be termed as bloatware. The commission now wants these OEMs to provide a list of all the apps that come pre-installed on their devices, along with a clear way on how to uninstall them.

“The litigation is our latest attempt to safeguard consumers’ rights after other methods failed,” Tao said, without elaborating on what other steps had been taken.

“We hope it will force other companies in the sector to end the unreasonable, but common, practice of pre-installing apps without telling consumers. This is something that is very much necessary for the healthy development of the whole industry,” he said.

The commission even found in its testing of 20 different smartphones that certain apps steal cellular data, though none of Samsung devices were found guilty of this wrong doing.

Samsung and Oppo have 15 days to file their defence, after which a trial will occur.