Epic Games Alleges Google And Samsung Colluded To Restrict App Store Competitors

Epic’s suit, filed before the Northern District of California federal court, is focused on Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature, which the phone maker describes as a security feature that protects a user’s device by “preventing the installation of applications from unauthorized sources and blocking malicious activity.”

When enabled, the Auto Blocker service only allows apps to be installed from authorized sources—namely Google’s Play Store and Samsung’s Galaxy Store—and Epic alleges that Samsung does not offer any pathway for third-party stores to become “authorized sources.”

Epic’s suit notes Auto Blocker originally launched as an opt-in feature but in July Samsung announced that it would be switched on by default—impacting the newly launched Epic Games Store on Android.

The video game company claims that, with this change, users will now have to go through an “onerous 21-step process to download an app outside of the Google Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store.”

Epic alleges that the move to switch Auto Blocker on by default was a “coordinated action” by Google and Samsung to preemptively undermine the remedies the federal court is expected to issue soon in the antitrust case the game maker won against Google last year.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told the Wall Street Journal that around 50% of users trying to install Epic Games Store on Android give up because of all “the friction introduced” by Google and Samsung.

A Samsung spokesperson told Forbes it plans to “vigorously contest Epic Game’s baseless claims” and said the features integrated into its devices are “designed in accordance with Samsung’s core principles of security, privacy, and user control.”