Epic Games Sues Google and Samsung for Anti-Competitive Collusion

Epic Games has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Google and Samsung of colluding to illegally block the distribution of Android apps on Samsung’s devices.

“Today we filed a lawsuit against Google and Samsung alleging that they illegally colluded to block competition by turning the Auto Blocker feature on by default on Samsung devices,” Epic Games tweeted. “This undermines the progress made to open up Android devices to competition.”

In other words, Epic alleges that, having lost badly in Epic v. Google, the online giant will soon be forced to open up its Google Play Store on Android, and so it is colluding with its biggest device partner to ensure that its phones and tablets are locked down instead. More specifically, though Google Play Store will in theory no longer be the only way to distribute apps in Android, it will literally remain the only way to do so on Samsung’s devices.

The key to this charge is a new Samsung feature called Auto Blocker, which is enabled by default on its devices and “prevents the installation of applications from unauthorized sources [while] blocking malicious activity.” Auto Blocker allows customers to install apps from the Google Play Store and Samsung’s Galaxy Store, but not from any other source. Users can disable Auto Blocker, but only temporarily, and it requires users who do this to engage in an “onerous 21 step process to download an app outside of the Google Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store.” So the Epic Games Store for Android will never be viable on Samsung’s devices.

Obviously, Auto Blocker is useful and even desirable in many ways. The question is whether it was created to punish Epic Games and others that wish to create third-party app stores on Android.

Epic believes it was.

“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,” the firm explains. “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.”

Epic Games is asking the court to prohibit this anticompetitive collusion and force Samsung to make Auto Blocker disabled by default. It cites its victory in Epic v. Google and the jury’s findings that Google agreements with partners that block competition are illegal. And it notes that the relevant part of that ruling applies to not just Google but its hardware partners as well.

Epic Games says it is reaching out to EU regulators as well.