Epic Games Starts A New Battle With Google And Samsung
The video game maker Epic Games kicked off the week with a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL)-owned Google and Samsung, accusing them of conspiring to block third party competition on Samsung devices. This is Epic’s second lawsuit against Google.
More precisely, Epic Games accused Samsung and Google of violating antitrust laws in application distribution on Samsung devices. With Samsung’s “Auto Blocker” feature that is turned on by default, Epic Games accused the two for only allowing for apps from authorized sources, such as the Samsung Galaxy Store or Google Play Store, to be installed. This feature can be changed in a phone’s settings, but Samsung argues that it is a tool for blocking malicious activity as it prevents installation of applications from unauthorized sources.
Epic claims that the Auto Blocker violates the December’s jury verdict.
According to the complaint, Epic Games decided to file the lawsuit in order to prevent Google from “negating the long overdue promise of competition in the Android App Distribution Market,”. Last year, Epic won its first antitrust lawsuit against Google as the jury also found that Google protected its Android app store with competitive barriers that harmed both smartphone consumers and software developers. Epic now claims that Samsung designed the “Auto Blocker” feature in coordination with Google to preemptively undermine the jury’s verdict from December.
Four years after Epic went after the mighty Google for running an illegal app store monopoly, a battle which it won in December, Epic is suing again. Like in the previous lawsuit, Epic insists it is fighting on behalf of all developers, not just for its personal interest. Samsung made it clear it will vigorously contest Epic Games’ baseless claim, while a spokesperson from Google, Dan Jackson, described the lawsuit as being meritless, with Google denying collusion. Epic Games does not have evidence that Google and Samsung colluded on the Auto Blocker feature that it claims has cemented Google’s dominance, its hopes that evidence of anticompetitive behavior would surface during the document discovery process. Like last time, Epic is asking for a jury trial. In addition, Epic has another ongoing legal battle with Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple was due to submit approximately 1.3 million documents related to recent App Store changes on Monday. The ongoing dispute is result of Epic Games‘ deliberate violation of App Store rules back in 2020, which caused Apple to remove it from the platform. While this battle continues, Apple was forced to update its AppStore rules in Europe, now allowing other payment methods. Therefore, whatever happens, titans like Apple and Google are facing an evolving landscape, with outcome of these disputes and regulatory action threatening to significantly weaken their dominance, possibly setting new precedents in their ecosystems.
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