by Topline
Video game company Epic Games filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing Google and Samsung of conspiring to harm third-party app stores on smartphones running Google’s Android operating system, nearly a year after the “Fortnite” game maker filed an antitrust lawsuit against the search giant won.
Epic Games accused Google and Samsung of colluding in a federal lawsuit.
Key facts
Epic’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, takes aim at Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature, which the phone maker describes as a security feature that protects a user’s device by “preventing the installation of applications from unauthorized resources and block malicious activity. ”
When enabled, the Auto Blocker service only allows apps to be installed from authorized sources (namely Google’s Play Store and Samsung’s Galaxy Store) and Epic claims that Samsung does not provide any ability for third-party stores to become ‘authorized sources’.
Epic’s lawsuit notes that Auto Blocker was originally launched as an opt-in feature, but in July Samsung announced it would be enabled by default, impacting the newly launched Epic Games Store on Android.
The video game company claims that this change will now require users to go through an “arduous 21-step process to download an app outside of the Google Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store.”
Epic claims that the move to enable Auto Blocker by default was a “coordinated action” by Google and Samsung to preemptively undermine remedies that the federal court is expected to issue soon in the antitrust case the game maker won against Google last year.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told the Wall Street Journal that about 50% of users who try to install Epic Games Store on Android give up because of all the “friction introduced” by Google and Samsung.
Samsung told Forbes that it plans to “vigorously dispute Epic Game’s baseless claims” and said the features integrated into its devices are “designed in accordance with Samsung’s core principles of security, privacy and user control.” ”
Big number
71%. That’s Samsung’s share of the “premium Android devices” (phones that cost more than $600) sold in the US, according to Epic. Furthermore, Samsung has a 57% share of all Android phones sold in the US
In return for
While Epic claims that a user must go through a “21-step process” to download an app from outside the Google Play Store or Galaxy Store onto a device with Auto Blocker, the company’s own support page lists a four-step process about “How to Disable Automatic Blocking.”
Important background
Epic has sidelined both Google and Apple in recent years, arguing that the companies have abused their dominant position in the smartphone market to charge app makers excessive fees. Both Google and Apple get a 30% cut on all profits generated by app makers on their platforms. While the judge in the Apple case dismissed Epic’s antitrust claim against Apple, a jury in the Google case ruled in favor of the Fornite maker. The judge overseeing the Google case has yet to issue an order on what legal remedies Google must submit to.
