Epic Games is suing Google and Samsung over anticompetitive collusion claims

The creator of Fortnite is filing a lawsuit in the US against Google and Samsung, accusing the two companies of “collusion” to make it harder to download third-party apps on their platforms.

Epic Games has accused Google of pressuring Samsung – which runs Google’s Android operating system on its phones – to make it harder for users to download apps from places that are not Google’s app stores or Samsung’s own stores.

In its lawsuit, Epic alleges that Samsung’s recent switch to a feature called Auto Blocker – a tool that prevents users from installing apps from third-party sources – was enabled by default “intentionally” by Google and Samsung to cause greater difficulties for users when trying to download apps from alternative app stores.

The Fortnite creator claims that Google was trying to “preemptively undermine” an earlier ruling in a US court that found that the tech giant had created an “illegal monopoly” on Android app distribution by making its own Google Play store available. Highlighting the store and limiting access to other, external ones app stores.

In a blog post announcing the lawsuit, Epic Games said: “We are filing a lawsuit against Google and Samsung for a coordinated effort to block competition from distributing apps on Samsung devices with Samsung’s AutoBlock feature enabled by default.

“Auto Blocker is the latest in a long series of deals in which Google and Samsung have agreed not to compete in order to protect Google’s monopoly position.

“Auto-blocking makes the Google Play Store the only viable way to download apps to Samsung devices, preventing any other store from competing on a level playing field.

“Our litigation alleges that Samsung’s recent implementation of the auto-blocking feature was intentionally designed in cooperation with Google to preemptively undermine the relief granted by the U.S. District Court following the jury verdict in Epic v. Google.

“The jury found that Google’s app store practices are illegal, including the unlawful contracts Google enters into with phone makers such as Samsung.

“Allowing this coordinated, illegal, anti-competitive trade to continue harms developers and consumers and undermines both the jury verdict and regulatory and legislative progress around the world.”

The game developer has been battling big tech companies for years over anti-competitive behavior in their app stores, and only recently returned to Apple’s Android and iOS platforms in Europe after new EU rules forced the company to loosen its control over third-party app stores. enabling Epic to launch its own Epic Games Store on its platforms.

Speaking to reporters about the lawsuit, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the company is concerned that Google wants to circumvent any potential restrictions placed on it to make its platform available by encouraging phone makers and other companies that use the Android operating system but are not subject to the same rulings and instead implement the alleged anti-competitive processes.

“The timing of this is truly disturbing,” he said.

“Epic went through a major antitrust trial at the end of last year in a jury trial – and we won. a jury trial in all respects.

“We have always been concerned that Google would adopt many of its illegal practices and convince carriers and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to adopt them instead.

“So, when the court finally issues a remedy and an injunction against Google’s practices, we are very concerned that Google will simply try to pass on all these bad practices to partners who are not subject to this injunction, and will continue to block competition (app) stores and make Android an extremely difficult platform to compete with.”

Sweeney said that since Samsung decided to enable auto-blocking by default, it has created a 21-step process that users must now go through to download the Epic Games Store and access Fortnite.

He also accused both companies of “misleading users by marking an Epic Games Store download as ‘unknown’ when users try to install it, arguing that the game developer has a long relationship with both companies and is not of an unknown or unverified source.”