After its major lawsuit win only a month ago, Epic is suing Samsung and Google over accusations of undermining third-party app stores. We were confident that we had seen the last of the Epic vs Google battle when the company was allowed to bring its third-party app store to Android devices. This conviction was further solidified when even Apple was forced to allow sideloading of apps in the EU, solidifying Epic’s win against both major smartphone system providers.
Until recently, Epic didn’t have a mobile app store of its own, but in August, the company was finally able to bring its game store to all Android devices and iOS devices in the EU, without having to spare a glance at the app stores provided by the two competing OS. Despite the victory, the Fortnite creator is set to sue Google once more and it is including Samsung on its hit list this time, hoping to find another legal victory against major tech giants.
Image: Fortnite
Epic Sues Samsung and Google, Accuses Smartphone Makers of Blocking Competition
So why exactly is Samsung being sued by Epic Games? All this back and forth has to do with an auto blocker feature on Samsung devices which has been set in place to block and discourage users from downloading flames and apps from untrustworthy resources. The tool comes preinstalled and turned on automatically on Samsung devices. Users who want to download the Epic Games mobile app will have to cross some extra steps to convince their smartphones that the app is safe to download.
Epic’s antitrust case against Samsung claims that this lengthy process dissuaded users from making an effort to download third-party app stores. The company believes that Samsung requires users to go through “an exceptionally onerous 21-step process” in order to download the app, and users are likely to get lost in the steps and struggle with unblocking the app or they will otherwise tire of the process and give up.
This system of alerting users that it is a bad idea to download files from unauthorized sources is not new—Android devices have always had the check in place, allowing users who don’t care to turn off the auto block so they can download the files. Now, Samsung is being sued by Epic Games for making the process more complex and using the excuse of user safety to ward off competition.
The Fortnite creator is also suing Google because it feels that the company had colluded with Samsung to set up this block. The company has no proof of this but is hoping that details will turn up as the case unfolds in court. It’s a very lackadaisical approach to taking legal action, but it has worked in Epic’s favor before so why change a winning formula?
Epic vs Google and Samsung—Does Epic Really Have a Case?
According to Epic, the decision to introduce the Auto Blocker update back in October 2023 may have initially been a consideration of security, allowing users to opt-in if they wanted to automatically block external downloads. However, the company states that in July 2024, Samsung switched up its decision and made it the default setting.
Epic calls Samsung’s defense of safety considerations for its users nonsensical as the “Auto Blocker conducts no assessment of the safety or security of any specific source or any specific app before blocking an installation.” The measure doesn’t seem to enforce any additional checks or scans to authorize the download once the users turn it off, so how much malware is truly blocked by such a measure? In Epic’s estimate, it does nothing to cut off malware, only third-party developers.
The company has also stated that there is no real way for a developer to get their app store on a whitelist where the downloads won’t be blocked by Samsung, so at the end of the day, developers have no way to overcome this Auto Block barrier without Samsung’s help.
Today we filed a lawsuit against Google and Samsung alleging that they illegally colluded to block competition by turning the Auto Blocker feature *on by default* on Samsung devices. This undermines the progress made to open up Android devices to competition.…
— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) September 30, 2024
Epic’s antitrust case against Samsung will very likely pull evidence from the previous case against Google, where they were able to find detailed signs of attempts to pay Samsung to block other developers from competing with the Play Store. Google was allegedly ready to pay the Korean smartphone maker to phase out its own Galaxy App Store, an initiative referred to as “Project Banyan.”
In 2020, Google signed a Revenue Sharing Agreement with Samsung. Since the agreement, Samsung has not entered into exclusive deals with major game developers to launch on the Galaxy Store, has not competed to offer developers a better headline rate than 30%, and has not taken other necessary steps in order to meaningfully compete with the Google Play Store.
—Epic Games
As Epic sues Samsung and Google, more details might emerge to show that this was an intentional approach to keep the Epic Games Store and other future app stores out of convenient reach for users.
Google And Samsung Deny Epic’s Accusations
Google for its part, released a statement to The Verge clarifying that it did not ask Samsung to create the Auto Block feature. It states that it has “warned users for years about the real risks associated with downloading apps directly from the web. In the U.S., federal agencies, NGOs and fintech associations have guidance underscoring this issue. Governments around the world have requested additional solutions to help further protect users from the fraud, theft and abuse from sideloaded apps that are causing real harm to people’s lives.”
Calling the lawsuit a “meritless and dangerous move,” Google has accused Epic of putting corporate interests above user protection.
Samsung has also responded similarly, claiming that “the features integrated into [their] 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. Users have the choice to disable Auto Blocker at any time.” The company has made it clear that during the device set-up process, users are given the option to turn off the Auto Block feature. This gives them the choice to have it as the default setting on their device and from our understanding, many do prefer it.
Personally, Epic’s antitrust against Samsung feels a little weak as the Auto Block feature is not as hard to overcome as they have made it out to be. Gamers who are likely to be interested in what the Epic Games Store has to offer will all be tech savvy enough to overcome the minor but obviously present barriers and download the third-party store. It would be another matter entirely if the steps were too confusing or misleading, but the process—from Epic’s own screenshots—is relatively straightforward.
The Auto Block does prevent extremely young and old users from downloading harmful files from unverified sources by mistake. Having witnessed my own parent trying to download a “better” version of Facebook from a suspicious link that was shared on a community group, it is often better for these checks to add some safeguards that ensure a user knows what they are getting into with their download.
Epic’s antitrust against Samsung and Google appears overly nitpicky, but we’ll see what the jury has to say in the case this time around.