After scoring a so-so victory against Apple in the long trial against the iPhone maker due to the fees Apple claimed through its obligatory AppStore, reducing the profits Epic made with Fortnite, Epic is now targeting the other giant in the mobile market for a similar reason: Google and Samsung.
Epic Games has announced they are filing a court case against those two companies over coordinated efforts to block competition in app distribution on Samsung devices with Samsung’s default-on Auto Blocker feature.
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. However, it was changed in July 2024 making it the default setting.
While you can disable, it requires users to change their device settings before they can download and install any app from third party app stores or the web, discouraging many users and, in Epic’s view, “cementing Google Play Store as the only viable option and maintaing Google’s monopoly power, which affects developers and consumers”.
Epic refers to a U.S. District Court’s remedy after jury’s verdict on its previous case againts Google that claimed that Google’s app store practices are illegal, including the unlawful agreements Google enters into with phone manufacturers such as Samsung, a sort of no competition alliance that mostly benefits Google and harms third party stores like Epic’s own.
In August 2024, Epic Games launched Epic Games Store, its own storefront, worldwide on Android devices (Google) and also on iOS devices in Europe, thanks to an European Digital Markets Act (DMA) approved in 2022.
It is through that store where you can download Fortnite and also Rocket League and Fall Guys on mobile. But, with these kind of Auto-Blockers, accessing the store is more difficult, and probably will remain hidden for a lot of users.