Many users may already know that Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, has operated its own app marketplace for some time—the Epic Games Store.
In December of last year, the company scored a major legal victory in an antitrust case against Google, where the court ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly over app distribution and in-app billing services for Android devices. However, despite this victory, Epic’s legal battles are far from over.
The company is now suing Google again, and this time it has also included Samsung as a defendant, focusing on Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature.
In this new lawsuit, Epic Games claims that Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature is hindering users from installing the Epic Games Store on the latest Samsung devices.
This is because the Auto Blocker, which is now enabled by default, only permits app installations from Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store. To install third-party apps, users must first disable this function, creating an additional hurdle.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has suggested that Google and Samsung may be collaborating, although he acknowledges there’s no hard evidence to support this theory at present.
He found that there were no direct instructions on how to deactivate Auto Blocker. After searching “turn off auto blocker” within the settings, he was able to find the option, but it required going through several screens to fully disable it.
Aside from its victory against Google, Epic Games also successfully sued Apple in a separate case. The issue with Apple arose when the tech giant refused to allow Epic Games to launch its app store on iOS devices.
However, following intervention from the EU, Apple was forced to permit the store, though the company continues to resist and claims that its compliance is temporary.
As for how Google and Samsung will respond to these new allegations, that remains uncertain.
Both companies may argue that they are not deliberately making it difficult to install the Epic Games Store. For now, it seems that Epic’s legal struggle will continue, and we’ll be left waiting for the courts to resolve the matter.
