Auto Blocker: Epic files lawsuit against Samsung and Google

Four years after the first legal dispute began in a US district court, Epic Games has filed another lawsuit against Google and this time is also taking action against smartphone manufacturer Samsung. The manufacturer of Fortnite is accusing both of them of an illegal conspiracy against third-party app stores. The focus is on Samsung's Auto Blocker function, which is pre-installed on new smartphones and prevents the installation of apps from "untrusted sources".

Epic apparently counts its Games Store as an app from an "untrusted source" and accuses Google and Samsung of intent and even suspects that the blocker does not really check apps for security risks. At least this is what Epic boss Tim Sweeney claims. There is also no possibility for competing app stores to be approved. Disabling the Auto Blocker is also quite complicated and requires 21 steps, so many users simply leave the protection running, according to Epic.

No evidence so far

According to media reports, Epic has yet to provide any evidence of possible collusion between Google and Samsung. Epic now apparently wants this to be clarified in a jury trial. According to "The Verge", Epic also admitted in a press conference that it had not even asked Samsung for approval as an authorized app. Epic's Games Store has 10 million mobile installations to date. Epic boss Sweeney claims to be fighting not only for himself, but for all app developers. He has directly approached Samsung to switch off the blocker or introduce an "honest" procedure to whitelist apps.

The new Epic lawsuit follows a court victory in December 2023, when Epic prevailed against Google on several counts. At that time, it was already about an app store monopoly on Android devices. Epic then launched its games store for Android in August 2024. This also appeared for the iPhone in the EU due to the Digital Markets Act.

(mki)