Epic Games he announced today that we have initiated a new legal action against Samsung e Googleaccused of engaging in anti-competitive practices aimed at blocking its mobile store on their devices. The cause revolves around the Auto Blocker present on Samsung phones: this function prevents the installation of applications from external sources, with users finding themselves forced to disable it manually in order to install the Epic Games Store.
According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Auto Blocker further complicates the process of installing apps not from official stores, which is already made difficult by warnings and technical steps on Android. Sweeney said that “about 50% of users are dissuaded from completing the download due to these difficulties”, and that “Samsung adds further obstacles with its Auto Blocker”, accusing Google and the Korean company of working together to hinder competition .
Sweeney described the Auto Blocker warnings as misleading because they present the Epic Games Store as an unknown and dangerous app, despite Samsung being well aware of its security. Epic Games claims that this policy is not aimed at protecting users from malware, but rather aims to eliminate competition by making other applications appear unsafe compared to those on the Samsung and Google stores.
Epic Games, therefore, with this lawsuit intends to force Samsung to disable the Auto Blocker function by default. The company wants to reach 100 million downloads of its Store on mobile by the end of the year, and Epic Games considers the presence of this function an obstacle towards this goal.
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