Epic Games wants to save all app developers from the bad big tech companies. At least, this is what its CEO, Tim Sweeney, has been saying for years. First, there was a lengthy legal battle against Apple and Google that began when the company removed Fortnite and then banned Epic’s developer account for violating App Store rules. Now, the game maker has sued Samsung and, once again, Google due to a new Auto Blocker feature.
With this feature enabled on Samsung phones (it can be turned off when a user is setting up their phone), they can only download apps from trusted sources, such as the Galaxy Store or the Play Store. Samsung and Google say this helps prevent malicious apps from being downloaded.
In the lawsuit, Epic says that Google and Samsung don’t offer a process for rival stores to become trusted marketplaces. More interestingly, Epic hasn’t even asked if its recently released app store can be an “authorized source.”
In the meantime, Epic says users need to take a convoluted 21-step journey on their phone (or maybe just four, but who’s counting?) to turn this feature off and use other third-party stores.
Epic claims that after years of Fortnite being absent from smartphones and just having returned, Samsung decided to enable this Auto Blocker feature by default because it doesn’t want competition.
According to The Verge, Sweeney told journalists this feature is “not designed to protect against malware, which would be a legitimate purpose. The thing’s designed to prevent competition.”
While Epic’s CEO doesn’t have proof that Google and Samsung colluded against his company, he hopes the legal process will reveal that everyone is plotting against Epic.
BGR will continue to follow how this story unfolds and the company’s other lawsuits against other tech companies.
