Greenpeace members rappelled down the side of a building on Sunday where Samsung was holding a press conference, protesting the company's disposal of its .
Two protesters associated with the environmental activist group held up signs saying "rethink, reuse, recycle" on top of the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya in Barcelona, where the Mobile World Congress was being held. It happened around 6.40pm local time.
A Samsung representative then confiscated the sign, only to see the same protesters pull out another sign.
After they were escorted away, two more Greenpeace members began to rappel down the side of the building to put an even bigger sign up, one that covered the entire edifice.
A Samsung representative held the sign to stop it from unfolding, and it was eventually taken down.
In response to the incident, Samsung released a statement to CNBC, saying the company has "prioritized a safe and environmentally friendly process for disposing of devices. We are committed to working closely with regulatory bodies, as well as carrier partners, to ensure a responsible disposal plan for our devices."
Last year, Samsung was forced to recall and eventually discontinue the Note 7 smartphone, because many kept catching fire.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace has been critical of the South Korean electronics giant over the issue. In November, the organization released a statement urging Samsung to come up with a plan to reuse, refurbish and resell the phones.
It said there were 4.3 million Note 7 phones produced and Greenpeace was concerned about what impact this would have on the environment.
"Samsung must act transparently to ensure these gadgets don't end up in the trash but are instead dismantled and separated, and that the precious materials they contain are reused," Greenpeace said in a statement at the time.