Epic is filing a major new lawsuit in the App Store battle, this time against Samsung and Google

UPDATE 01/10/24 9am UK: Today, Google brings new condemnation of Epic's latest legal push. In a statement this morning from Dave Kleidermacher, VP Engineering, Android Security and Privacy, shared with Eurogamer, the legal battle against Google and Samsung is described as “dangerous.”

“Epic’s latest lawsuit is a baseless and dangerous step,” said Kleidermacher. “Google did not ask Samsung to develop its auto-blocking feature.”

Epic has argued that Samsung's introduction of a new security feature, Auto Blocker, unfairly restricts competition by blocking users from downloads made outside of Google and Samsung's own stores.

“While Android allows sideloading, Google and the security community have been warning users for years about the real risks associated with downloading apps directly from the Internet,” Kleidermacher continued. “In the US, federal agencies, NGOs and fintech associations have guidance highlighting this issue. Governments around the world have called for additional solutions to better protect users from fraud, theft and abuse through sideloaded apps that cause real harm to people's lives.” That's why Google offers its own security features like Google Play Protect, which Scans a user's device for malicious apps, regardless of where the app was downloaded. Android device manufacturers can innovate and develop additional security features for their devices.

“It is intentionally misleading when it comes to accessing a game. This is about user safety. And Epic’s lawsuit puts their corporate interests ahead of protecting users.”

UPDATE 30/09/24 6:00pm UK: Google has now responded to Epic's new lawsuit, which was filed today against the Android phone maker and also Samsung.

“This is a baseless lawsuit,” a Google spokesperson told Eurogamer. “Android device manufacturers can take their own measures to ensure the safety of their users.”

The maker of Fortnite has also claimed that the launch is part of a joint response from Samsung and Google to the launch of the Epic Game Store for mobile devices. Our full story can be found below.

ORIGINAL STORY 9/30/24 12pm UK: Epic announced a major new legal battle today as it begins its fight against existing app store monopolies against former ally Samsung as well as ongoing rival Google in a new front that may mean a return to court.

A key feature of Samsung phones forms the basis of Epic Games' new complaint: a setting called Auto Blocker that users must disable in order to install Epic Games and Fortnite.

“The trigger for this complaint is one and only: that Samsung recently introduced a technology called Auto Blocker, which blocks software sideloading – it blocks the installation of software from stores that are not its own or” in the Google Play Store “said Epic boss Tim Sweeney in a press conference before the lawsuit was published.

Epic points out that Auto Blocker is an attempt at collusion between Google and Samsung, in which the former passes on practices deemed anticompetitive by Epic to a large partner before enforcing stricter rules at Google itself.

In practice, Auto Blocker works similarly to existing “scare screens” and has additional technical steps on other phones that make it difficult to download software outside of official sources – such as Google Play and iPhone App Store.

Users who try to download the Epic Game Store, for example, are warned in technical and frightening language that they are putting their device's security at risk, and in a fairly laborious process must disable the automatic blocker in their phone's settings to continue.

According to Sweeney, Android's sequence of warning messages and additional steps is already preventing about 50 percent of users from completing the download. Samsung's auto-blocking moves are also adding further “friction,” he continued.

“For your security, your phone is currently not allowed to install unknown apps from this source,” a warning message reads.

“Well, Google knows what Fortnite is, they've distributed it in the past,” Sweeney noted. “Google knows what Epic Game Store is, they looked into us. Therefore, this warning in itself is misleading.”

Epic is unhappy with both Google and Samsung here, as users allow Google's Chrome browser to install software (like the Epic Game Store) and then have to deal with Samsung's Auto Blocker itself.

“[This is] “A new Samsung alert that came in after we won Epic against Google,” Sweeney said. “A feature that Samsung has enabled by default for everyone.” [new] Users who surprised us.

Sweeney also called Samsung's own warnings during the installation process “misleading,” as the generic warning message again labels the Epic Game Store as an “unknown app.”

“Samsung knows what Fortnite is,” he continued. “Fortnite was introduced to the public in numerous stage presentations and streams, they marketed it in a partnership in which we spent tens of millions of dollars together. Samsung knows the Epic Game Store. And they still call.” It’s an “unknown app”.

Samsung describes Auto Blocker as a feature that “helps protect you from security threats, suspicious activity, and privacy risks,” as well as blocking malware in messaging apps and alerting you when unknown commands or software updates are initiated from USB-connected devices . In short, turning it off sounds like a bad move.

“It makes it almost impossible for a store to ever compete with the Samsung Galaxy Store and the Google Play Store,” Sweeney said. “That is intentional. The purpose is not to protect the user from malware. Windows and Mac have perfectly good malware protection mechanisms, and Epic fully supports platforms that protect against malware.”

“What's happening here is different: it's just trying to hinder competition by making it extremely hard, and one of the key elements of that hindrance is giving the user misleading messages that portray software as something that the Platform manufacturer knows and knows that it is safe and secure – [and is instead] They characterize it as unknown and potentially harmful to your device. That is what our legal dispute is about.

“It’s about unfair competition by giving the impression that the competitors’ products are inferior to the company’s own products.”

And that's obviously a big problem for Epic Games, as the company has ambitious smartphone install goals for its storefront and Fortnite. Sweeney revealed that the Epic Game Store has now reached 10 million mobile installs, but the company is still aiming for a much higher goal of 100 million by the end of the year.

Epic says it is taking the legal action now after Samsung recently decided to enable the automatic blocker by default on new handsets.

In a statement, Epic said its lawsuit alleges the “recent implementation of the auto-blocking feature was intentionally made in coordination with Google to pre-emptively obey the U.S. District Court's remedies following the jury's verdict in Epic v. Google.” undermine”.

“The jury concluded that Google’s app store practices are illegal, including the unlawful agreements that Google enters into with phone manufacturers such as Samsung.”

Epic says its goal with this lawsuit is to disable the automatic blocker by default to “enable competition.”

Eurogamer has reached out to Samsung and Google for comment.

The Epic Game Store recently launched in the European Union on Android devices as well as iPhone and iPad, offering a way to play Fortnite again – after Epic's previous legal drama with Google and Android, which was always portrayed as a battle against the platform store became monopolies.

“We probably lost $1 billion… but what is the price of freedom?” Sweeney said previously.