Epic Games is suing Samsung and Google over coordinated efforts to block competition in app distribution on Samsung devices with Samsung’s default-on Auto Blocker feature. Auto Blocker is the latest in a long series of dealings in which Google and Samsung have agreed not to compete to protect Google’s monopoly power, as per the game’s publisher.
Epic Games claims that Samsung’s recent introduction of the Auto Blocker feature was deliberately designed in collaboration with Google to preemptively counter the U.S. District Court’s remedy following the jury’s verdict in Epic’s lawsuit against Google. The jury determined that Google’s app store practices, including its unlawful agreements with manufacturers like Samsung, were illegal.
As for what’s auto-blocker, it is a setting that Samsung introduced on their mobile devices in October 2023 as an opt-in feature that disables the user’s ability to install apps from any sources other than the Google Play Store and the Samsung Galaxy Store. In July 2024, however, Samsung made Auto Blocker the default setting, requiring every user to change their device settings before they could download and install any app from third-party app stores or the web.
This setting affects Epic Games’ mobile app store because it installs as a third-party application, which Samsung blocks during installation until the user turns off Auto-blocker. Auto Blocker defaulting to “on” requires an exceptionally onerous 21-step process to download an app outside of the Google Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store, mirroring Google’s “Unknown Sources” process with multiple steps and scare screens, says Epic Games.
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On the other hand, Samsung advertises the feature as a prevention method against security attacks. “At Samsung, we constantly strive to keep our users safe from security attacks, and with the introduction of Auto Blocker, users can continue to enjoy the benefits of our open ecosystem, knowing that their mobile experience is secured,” Samsung said when it introduced the feature.
Epic Games provided evidence against Samsung and Google, saying that Google has a long history of inducing Samsung into “anticompetitive dealings.” “During the Epic v Google trial there was exhaustive and detailed evidence of Google’s schemes to pay Samsung to not compete with the Google Play Store and to block other app stores from trying to compete,” read the blog post by Epic Games. Key points noted by Epic Games included:
- Google expressed a strong desire to avoid competing with Samsung.
- Google sought to pay Samsung to phase out the Samsung Galaxy Store, including as part of an initiative called Project Banyan.
- In 2020, Google signed a Revenue Sharing Agreement with Samsung. Since then, Samsung has not entered into exclusive deals with major game developers to launch on the Galaxy Store, has not competed to offer developers a better headline rate than 30%, and has not taken other necessary steps to meaningfully compete with the Google Play Store.
Google lost its previous lawsuit against Epic Games. The jury ruled that Google’s agreements with OEMs to block competition were illegal. The game’s publisher said this applies not only to Google but also to the device manufacturers that collude with them.