SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - Fortnite video game developer Epic Games on Monday accused Alphabet's (GOOG) Google and South Korean electronics giant Samsung of conspiring to protect Google's Play store from competition.
'We are filing a court case against Google and Samsung over coordinated efforts to block competition in app distribution on Samsung devices with Samsung's default-on Auto Blocker feature,' the company announced in a statement.
'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. Auto Blocker cements the Google Play Store as the only viable way to get apps on Samsung devices, blocking every other store from competing on a level playing field,' it added.
Epic said its litigation alleges that Samsung's recent implementation of the Auto Blocker feature was intentionally crafted in coordination with Google to preemptively undermine the U.S. District Court's remedy following the jury's verdict in Epic's case against Google.
The jury found that Google's app store practices are illegal, including the unlawful agreements Google enters into with phone manufacturers such as Samsung.
Epic said it will also raise its competition concerns with regulators in the European Union, which has long scrutinized Google's business practices.
Auto Blocker 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 reversed course and 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.
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.
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