Epic Games has filed a lawsuit in US federal court in California, alleging that a Samsung mobile security feature called Auto Blocker is designed to prevent users from downloading apps from sources other than the Play Store or Samsung's Galaxy Store.
Epic Games, a US-based company backed by China's Tencent, claims that Samsung and Google are violating US antitrust laws by limiting consumer choice and stifling competition, leading to higher app prices.
“This is an unfair form of competition, making users believe that their competitor's product is inferior to their own,” said Epic CEO Tim Sweeney.
Google, in turn, called Epic’s lawsuit “baseless” and said Android device makers “have the right to take their own measures to protect their users.” Samsung also said it would “vigorously defend against Epic Games’ baseless allegations.”
“The features built into our devices are designed around Samsung’s core principles of security, privacy, and user control. We are committed to protecting users’ personal data,” Samsung said in a statement, emphasizing that users can turn off the Auto Blocker feature at any time.
Samsung introduced the Auto Blocker feature on its smartphones in late 2023 as an option to protect users from downloading apps that may contain malicious code.
Epic says Samsung has set Auto Blocker as the default setting since July and intentionally made it difficult to turn off or bypass the feature.
