Epic has announced major new litigation today as it takes its battle against existing app store monopolies to former ally Samsung, as well as current rival Google, on a new front that may see a return to court.
A key feature found on Samsung phones forms the cornerstone of Epic Games' new complaint: a setting known as Auto Blocker that users must disable to install Epic Games and Fortnite.
“The instigator of this complaint is one and only one thing: that Samsung recently introduced a technology it calls Auto Blocker, which blocks the side loading of software: it blocks the installation of software from stores that are not its own, or the Google Play Store” Epic boss Tim Sweeney said at a press conference before the litigation became public.
Epic suggests that Auto Blocker is an attempted collusion between Google and Samsung, with the former transferring what Epic considers anti-competitive practices to a major partner, before stronger rules are applied to Google itself.
In practice, Auto Blocker works similarly to existing “scare screens” and additional technical steps on other phones that make it difficult to download software outside of official sources, such as Google Play and the iPhone App Store.
Users who attempt to download the Epic Game Store, for example, are warned in scary, technical language that they are putting their device's security at risk and are required to disable Auto Blocker from their phone's settings via a quite laborious process to continue.
Android's sequence of alerts and additional steps already discourages about 50 percent of users from completing the download, Sweeney said. Samsung's Auto Blocker steps add more “friction” to that, he continued.
“For your security, your phone currently cannot install unknown applications from this source,” an alert message reads.
“Well, Google knows what Fortnite is, they've distributed it in the past,” Sweeney noted. “Google knows what the Epic Game Store is, it's already taken care of us. So this warning itself is misleading.”
Epic isn't happy with both Google and Samsung here, as users must allow Google's Chrome browser to install software (like the Epic Game Store) and then deal with Samsung's Auto Blocker.
“[This is] “A new warning from Samsung that came after we won Epic vs. Google,” Sweeney said. “A feature that Samsung activated by default for everyone [new] users who took us by surprise.”
Sweeney described Samsung's own alerts during the installation process as “misleading” as well, as once again the generic warning message describes Epic Game Store as an “unknown app.”
“Samsung knows what Fortnite is,” he continued. “Fortnite has been presented to the public in numerous of its theatrical presentations and broadcasts, they have been marketing it in a partnership that we have spent tens of millions of dollars on together. Samsung knows the Epic Game Store. And yet they are calling it a 'unknown application'”.
Samsung describes Auto Blocker as a feature that helps “keep you safe from security threats, suspicious activities and privacy risks” and also works to block malware in messaging apps and warns you when devices connected via USB initiate unknown commands or software updates. . In short, turning it off sounds like a bad decision.
“It's virtually impossible for any store to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Store and the Google Play Store,” Sweeney said. “This is intentional. The purpose of this is not to protect the user from malware. Windows and Mac have perfectly good mechanisms for protecting against malware, and Epic fully supports platforms that protect against malware.
“What is happening here is different: it is simply about obstructing competition by making it very difficult, and one of the key elements of this obstruction is presenting misleading messages to the user that present software like, something that the platform manufacturer knows, knows that is safe and secure – [and is instead] characterizing it as unknown and potentially harmful to your device. That's what our litigation is about.
“This is unfair competition by making the competition's products appear inferior to the company's own products.”
And this, of course, is a big deal for Epic Games as it pursues ambitious smartphone install goals for its store and Fortnite.
Epic says it is taking legal action now following Samsung's recent decision to have Auto Blocker enabled by default for new phones.
More to follow.