Epic Games is suing Google and Samsung over the app store

SAN FRANCISCO – It was announced Monday that Fortnite maker Epic Games is suing tech giants Google and Samsung, accusing them of illegally colluding to block competition on Samsung devices.

CEO Tim Sweeney said his company will file the lawsuit in a U.S. federal court in California, the same jurisdiction where the company won a multi-year legal battle with Google in 2023.

As part of his long-running fight to force Apple and Google to open up their smartphones to other app stores, he said he would take up the fight with authorities in Europe and Asia if necessary.

“This is a serious global fight that is ultimately about consumers’ right to enjoy all the benefits of competition and freely choose who they do business with,” Sweeney told reporters.

The latest lawsuit focuses on Samsung’s auto-locking feature.

Epic claims that this feature was implemented in cooperation with Google to challenge a recent US court decision against Google’s app store practices.

Following this decision, Epic in August launched its own app store, which allows users to bypass the Google-run store and offer content directly to smartphone users.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. PHOTO: PHILIP PACHECO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

Epic says the Auto Blocker feature silently blocks the New App Store and similar stores, making it difficult to install apps from sources other than the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store.

Epic said that in July 2024, Samsung changed its auto-blocking feature from an “opt-in” feature to a default setting, forcing users to go through a cumbersome 21-step process of downloading apps from third-party stores or the Internet.

Epic argues that this move cements the Google Play Store’s monopoly and violates the jury verdict in the court where Epic prevailed against Google.

In that case, a jury found Google’s app store practices, including its agreements with phone manufacturers, to be illegal.

“Allowing these coordinated, illegal, anti-competitive transactions to continue harms developers and consumers and undermines both the jury verdict and regulatory and legislative progress around the world,” Epic said in its announcement.

Epic, maker of the wildly popular video game Fortnite, is asking the court to ban what it calls anticompetitive conduct and order Samsung to remove Auto Blocker as a default setting on its devices.

As part of Epic’s ongoing dispute with major tech companies over app store policies and fees, the company previously sued Apple (mostly losing) and Google, arguing that app store practices are monopolistic and harm developers and consumers.

The new lawsuit comes at a time of increased scrutiny of the market power of big tech companies by regulators and legislators around the world, with new laws passed in Europe, Japan and South Korea limiting how the giants can do business.

Google and Samsung have not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit.