LOS ANGELES (AP) — Video game maker Epic Games sued Google and Samsung on Monday accused tech companies of collaborating to block third-party competition in distributing applications on Samsung devices.
At issue is Samsung’s “Auto Blocker” feature that only allows apps to be installed from authorized sources, such as the Samsung Galaxy Store and Google Play Store. This feature is turned on by default, but you can change it in your phone settings. Samsung says the tool prevents the installation of applications from unauthorized sources and blocks “malicious activity.”
In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court (Epic’s second against Google), the company said Auto Blocker “effectively cements Google’s dominance in the distribution of Android apps.” Epic, the developer of the popular game Fortnite, filed the lawsuit to prevent Google from “nullifying its long-overdue promise of competition in the Android app distribution market,” according to the complaint.
“Allowing this systematic illegal, anti-competitive transaction to proceed will harm developers and consumers, and will result in the loss of jury verdicts and regulatory and legislative progress around the world,” Epic Games said in a post on its website. It will harm both.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Samsung said it “actively promotes market competition, enhances consumer choice, and operates our business fairly.”
“The features integrated into our devices are designed according to Samsung’s core principles of security, privacy, and user control, and we remain committed to protecting your personal data. You can disable the autoblocker,” Samsung said, adding that it plans to “strongly dispute Epic Game’s baseless claims.”
In August, Epic launched the Epic Games Store on iPhone in the European Union and on Android devices worldwide. The company claims that currently downloading third-party apps outside of the Google Play Store or Samsung Galaxy Store requires a “very tedious 21-step process.” A support page on Epic’s website provides a four-step process for removing automatic blocker settings. Epic said these steps, combined with Google and Samsung’s “installation flow,” are part of 21 steps to download the Epic Games Store.
epic won First antitrust lawsuit against Google The verdict was handed down in December after a jury found that Google’s Android app store was protected by anticompetitive barriers that harmed smartphone consumers and software developers.
The game maker said the “autoblocker” feature was intentionally created in collaboration with Google to pre-emptively override the jury’s verdict in this case.
“Literally no store can compete with incumbents at such a disadvantage,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told X. must be able to compete freely on a level playing field.”
