Promoting healthy competition and removing barriers to prevent it seems to be in full swing. Google has lately been facing immense pressure for its search engine illegal monopoly, resulting in active perusal of the anti-trust lawsuit. Now, Samsung has also been appended with Google as both companies are under hot water for their Auto Blocker feature. Epic Games has recently filed a legal complaint against them for their feature, which apparently blocks competition by making third-party app installation arduous.
Epic Games is pursuing legal action against Samsung and Google for posing significant barriers to competition
Samsung incorporated the Auto Blocker feature into its smartphones and other devices in 2023. This feature was rolled out to prevent users from installing apps that were not part of the Google Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store. While it initially came out as an opt-in, in July 2024, it was announced that the option would become the default setting soon. The default setting would automatically stop the installation of apps from other app stores.
Epic Games Store was launched for mobile last month and filed a legal complaint against Samsung and Google in California when it stumbled upon this barrier. The company called out both entities for the Auto Blocker feature being applied by default as anti-competitive and suggested it was unfair conduct. Epic not only wants a jury trial for the case but also seeks monetary and injunctive relief.
In its legal complaint, the video gaming giant suggests that the Auto Blocker option makes users go through a 21-step cumbersome process to download any third-party apps like Epic's own store that include multiple warnings and various prompts. Epic Games further claims that the existing downloading steps for external apps are already complicated. This extension would only limit the competition more and create a monopoly for Google and Samsung's own app stores.
The Auto Blocker feature places Epic Games Store as software from an unknown source, which the company claims is ironic as its 'Fortnite' previously has been part of the Galaxy Store. In presenting its case, the company says that Samsung treats the two stores differently and has an unfair classification process, making it harder to compete in the mobile app market. When filing its complaint, the company wrote:
As an app developer, Epic is harmed by Samsung’s untruthful statements that its apps are unknown and unsafe. These false statements not only harm Epic’s reputation but lead to identifiable instances of users abandoning the installation of Epic apps, resulting in the lost profits that would have resulted from purchases made by those users.
Epic Games already won the case in December against Google and claimed that Google Play, being the required payment system for all transactions, was anti-competitive. The jury unanimously voted in favor of Epic Games Store's claim and now the company argues that the collaboration of Samsung and Google on the Auto Block feature undermines the verdict of even the previous case.
Samsung has yet to comment on the current legal action against it, but it looks like the pursuit of healthy competition is ongoing. It is only prudent for companies to shape up their practices accordingly and avoid such complications.
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