Fortnite video game maker Epic Games on Monday accused Alphabet’s Google and Samsung, the world’s largest Android phone maker, of conspiring to protect Google’s Play store from competition.
Epic filed a lawsuit in a US federal court in California alleging that a Samsung mobile security feature called Auto Blocker was intended to discourage users from downloading apps from sources other than the Play Store or Samsung Galaxy Store. It is Epic’s second antitrust lawsuit against Google.
Samsung and Google are violating US antitrust law by reducing consumer choice and preventing competition that would make apps less expensive, said US-based Epic, backed by China’s Tencent.
“This is unfair competition by misleading users into thinking that the competition’s products are inferior to the company’s own products,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told reporters.
“Google aims to keep the user safe by saying that they are not allowed to install applications from unknown sources. Well, Google knows what Fortnite is because it has distributed it in the past.”
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Samsung said it planned to “vigorously contest Epic Games’ baseless claims.”
“The features built into its devices are designed in accordance with Samsung’s core principles of security, privacy and user control, and we remain fully committed to safeguarding users’ personal data,” Samsung said in the statement, adding that users They have options to disable them. Automatic blocker at any time.
Epic said Samsung’s Auto Blocker was designed to mitigate the impact of a US verdict that Epic won against Google in December 2023 and that is expected to force the company to make apps easier to obtain from other sources.
Epic said it will also raise its competition concerns with European Union regulators, who have long scrutinized Google’s business practices.
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Epic had previously clashed with Google and Apple over their rules of charging up to 30% commission on App Store payments. After being banned for almost four years, it became available again last month on iPhones in the European Union and worldwide on Google’s Android devices.
Samsung introduced Auto Blocker to its smartphones in late 2023 as an optional feature to protect users from downloading apps that may contain malware. Epic said Samsung made Auto Blocker the default setting in July and intentionally made it difficult to disable or bypass.
Epic Games, based in Cary, North Carolina, sued Google in 2020, alleging that it stifled competition through its controls over app distribution and payments.