Epic Games has intensified its antitrust legal battle against Alphabet's Google (GOOGL, Financial), accusing the tech giant of collaborating with Samsung Electronics to block competing app stores on mobile devices sold globally through default settings.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday in a federal court in San Francisco, Epic Games alleges that Google is attempting to maintain its market dominance with Samsung's assistance. Samsung announced in July that all its phones would have a default setting aimed at preventing malware, which also restricts users from downloading Android app stores that compete with Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store, including ones from Epic Games and Microsoft (MSFT).
Before July, Samsung's auto-blocking feature was an optional tool to prevent malware. Now, it is a default setting, making Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store the only "authorized sources" for app downloads. Epic Games claims this auto-blocking feature will likely solidify Google's dominance in the Android app sales market.
Epic Games has taken this legal action to prevent Google from negating the long-overdue competition in the Android app distribution market. The conflict between Epic Games and Google stems from Google's control over its Android app store. Epic Games accuses Google of maintaining its monopoly by enforcing its payment system and restricting third-party app stores' entry. In 2023, a jury ruled that Google had abused its market advantage. Epic Games seeks to halt the alleged anti-competitive behavior and is seeking unspecified damages.
