Epic Games is filing another legal complaint against Google and Samsung, claiming that Samsung's Auto Blocker is a barrier to alternative app stores and contradicts last year's jury verdict.
Auto Blocker is a feature that Samsung introduced to its mobile devices in October 2023 and allows users to automatically prevent the installation of any apps that were not distributed through the Google Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store.
The feature was originally signed in, allowing those who wanted sideloading apps to continue to do so, but in July 2024, Samsung revealed that it would be on by default. In doing so, all Samsung devices will automatically prevent the user from installing alternative app stores, such as the Epic Games Store, which was launched for mobile last month.
In its complaint filed in the Northern District of California, Epic Games is asking the court to prevent Samsung from enabling Auto Blocker by default and to enjoin “Samsung and Google's anti-competitive and unfair conduct.”
The company is also requesting that this dispute be tried by a jury and is seeking monetary relief and damages, as well as legal costs.
Epic Games claims that with auto-blocking enabled, users must go through an “extremely arduous 21-step process” to download an external app such as the game's own store. By comparison, it's already taken 12 steps (Epic estimates) on Android due to multiple warnings about software from unknown sources.
Samsung's Auto Blocker also refers to the Epic Games Store as software from an “unknown” source, which Epic says contrasts with the fact that Samsung previously listed some of its games on the Galaxy Store.
“As an app developer, Epic is harmed by Samsung's false statements that its apps are unknown and unsafe,” the company wrote in its complaint. “These misrepresentations not only damage Epic's reputation, but lead to identifiable instances of users abandoning the installation of Epic apps, resulting in lost revenue that would have resulted from those users' purchases.”
Epic claims that Auto Blocker “consolidates the Google Play Store as the only viable way to get apps onto Samsung devices, blocking every other store on a level playing field.”
Epic also claims that the partnership between Samsung and Google undermines a jury verdict in a previous antitrust case against Google, which it won in December.
The jury unanimously voted that Google engaged in anti-competitive behavior in a number of ways, including requiring developers to use the Play Store's payment system for all transactions and allegedly offering financial incentives for developers to stay with the store.
“The jury's decision was unanimous and clear; Google's agreements with OEMs to block competition are illegal,” Epic Games said in a statement. “This applies not only to Google, but also to the device manufacturers that work with them. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that this decision is fully respected.”