Epic is suing Google again because the Epic Games Store is so difficult to install, and now it's dragging Samsung into the fight too

After scoring an unexpected victory in its year-long legal battle with tech giant Google, Epic Games has decided it wants another breakthrough, and this time it's dragging Samsung into the fray for good measure.

As amusing as it is to imagine Epic CEO Tim Sweeney telling Tim Cook to “get more people to fight a fair fight,” Samsung is actually at the center of this particular lawsuit. The issue revolves around Epic's plan to open its own store for Android devices, which will allow it to distribute its own games, and possibly others, without taking a big hit in sales. Epic is legally allowed to do this after its court victory – and it is – but Google and Samsung, Epic claims, are making the process as difficult as possible to dissuade users from actually using it.

“We are filing a lawsuit against Google and Samsung for coordinated efforts to block competition in app distribution on Samsung devices with Samsung’s Auto-Blocker feature enabled by default,” Epic wrote in its notice of lawsuit. “Auto Blocker is the latest in a long line of agreements in which Google and Samsung have agreed not to compete with each other to protect Google's monopoly power. Auto Blocker cements the Google Play Store as the only viable way to load apps onto Samsung devices, blocking each other to prevent the business from competing on a level playing field.

“Our litigation alleges that Samsung's recent implementation of the auto-blocking feature was intentionally designed in coordination with Google to pre-emptively undermine the U.S. District Court's remedies following the jury's verdict in Epic v. Google Google enters into deals with phone manufacturers like Samsung.

Samsung's Auto Blocker prevents users from installing software from unauthorized sources. This is supposedly a security feature to ensure Android owners don't have malware on their phones. This in itself is not particularly unusual. Epic's problem stems from the fact that, according to the lawsuit, the auto-blocker was originally an opt-in feature when it was introduced in October 2023, but was changed in July 2024 – shortly before the launch of the Epic Games Store on mobile devices. changed by Samsung to be enabled by default.

To make matters worse, the process to turn it off is a real pain in the ass: “An exceptionally arduous 21-step process,” as Epic put it. To reinforce the point, Epic included images of all 21 steps involved; Not an insurmountable task, but it sure looks like a headache.

Slide illustrating part of the Epic Games Store installation process on Samsung devices

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Epic claims in the lawsuit that enabling the automatic blocker by default “was a coordinated decision by Google and Samsung” and says that in its roughly 15 years as an Android device maker, Samsung has never imposed “additional restrictions” or blocks on direct downloading or Downloading from Android devices has imposed third-party stores on its devices. The lawsuit alleges that Google and Samsung “conducted a large amount of atypical intercompany communications that go well beyond the 'standard fare' of corporate and trade association practice” and that Samsung's push “to entrench the Play Store monopoly “, meaning only contributes to this “as part of a consideration” between the companies.

The end result, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said, is to drive Android owners away from third-party stores and back to the Play Store, where Google can take its 30 percent cut of sales.

“If we try to compete with Google Play and the Samsung Galaxy Store and their 70% revenue share by offering developers an 88% revenue share but giving up 50% of our users, then after taking into account the lost users and lost revenue that 88%. will be reduced to an effective sales share of 44%,” Sweeney posted, hopefully while wearing a chain mail hood. “Literally no store can compete with the incumbents if it is disadvantaged in this way. To ensure true competition, all reputable stores and apps must have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. That is what our lawsuit seeks to achieve.”

We have filed new antitrust and competition lawsuits against Google and Samsung. A jury found Google's practices illegal, and we fear that Google is encouraging Android hardware manufacturers and operators to adopt and continue Google's illegal practices leading up to the… https://t.co/gBRFYgripdSeptember 30, 2024

As The Verge reported, Sweeney admitted in an interview that Epic had no evidence of collusion, but he hoped it would come to light as part of the discovery process. He also said Epic did not ask Samsung for approval as an “authorized source” because the goal was not to get “special privileges” for Epic, but to make the platforms more accessible to all developers. He also said that he had reached out to Samsung privately to demand that Auto Blocker be reverted to an opt-in feature or that Samsung establish “an honest whitelisting process” that would allow users to access legitimate apps , but the two companies couldn't agree on how to make it work, leading to legal action.

If this sounds at all familiar, you might be thinking of Sweeney's August comments about Apple's “malicious compliance” in the European Union: The EU's Digital Markets Act of 2022 requires Apple to allow third-party storefronts on iOS devices, Apple has this However, I didn't make this process easy either. That's a separate and ongoing process (made even more complicated by the fact that the US doesn't require Apple to allow third-party stores), but there's definitely some kind of thematic similarity at play: the proverbial letter of the law is followed, but his spirit – remains elusive in Epic’s eyes.

Related Posts

“Storm of historic proportions”: Mayor Castor delivers final words before Hurricane Milton

Key takeaways from Donald Trump's Coachella rally

T-Spoon deserved better

Leave a Reply Cancel reply