Epic Games has accused Google and Samsung of teaming up to protect Google’s Play Store from competition.
The Fortnite video game maker, Epic Games, filed a lawsuit in a US federal court in California alleging that Samsung implemented a mobile security feature called Auto Blocker, which was intended to deter users from downloading apps from sources other than the Play store or Samsung’s Galaxy store.
Epic alleges that Samsung and Google are violating US antitrust laws by reducing consumer choice and preventing competition that would make apps less expensive.
“Google is pretending to keep the user safe saying you’re not allowed to install apps from unknown sources. Well, Google knows what Fortnite is as they have distributed it in the past,” said Epic chief executive Tim Sweeney.
“It’s about unfair competition by misleading users into thinking competitors’ products are inferior to the company’s products themselves.”
Google refuted the allegations and in a statement classified Epic’s lawsuit as “meritless” and said that Android device manufacturers “are free to take their own steps to keep their users safe and secure”.
Samsung added that it planned to “vigorously contest Epic Games’ baseless claims.”
“The features integrated into its devices are designed in accordance with Samsung’s core principles of security, privacy, and user control, and we remain fully committed to safeguarding users’ personal data,” said Samsung, noting that users have choices to disable Auto Blocker at any time.
Epic contends that Samsung’s Auto Blocker was designed to lessen the impact of a US verdict that Epic won against Google in December 2023 that is expected to force the company to make apps easier to obtain from other sources.
During that trial last year, Epic presented evidence that showed Google entering agreements with Samsung to maintain the dominance of the Play Store, which is included on the home screen of every Android phone outside of China.
Epic says the Play Store accounts for about 80 per cent of all Android apps downloaded, excluding China.
Epic said it will also raise its competition concerns with regulators in the European Union too, thereby opening the door to the European Commission opening investigations of its own into Google and Samsung’s latest practices.
Four years after it was pulled from Apple and Google’s app stores, Epic Games last month brought back three in-house games – including Fortnite – to iPhones in the EU and Android devices worldwide, courtesy of its new Epic Games Store. Epic Games aims to gain 100 million new installs of its Store by the end of the year.
