Epic Gamesa video game developer such as Fortnite, has announced the End of his judicial dispute against Samsung. Both companies have reached an agreement, thus closing the antimonopoly case initiated in September 2024, in which Samsung was accused of collaborating with Google to block competing apps stores on their smartphones.
«We dismiss our demand against Samsung after the conversations between the parties. We appreciate that Samsung addresses Epic's concerns, ”he explained Tim Sweeneyfounder and CEO of Epic Games, through a Twitter publication.
We're Distmissing Our Court Case Against Samsung Following The Parties' Discussions. We Are Grateful that Samsung Will Address Epic's Concerns. https://t.co/fgjyu6nmh0
– Tim Sweeney (@timesweeneyepic) July 7, 2025
What exposed the demand of Epic Games
On September 30, 2024, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Google and Samsung In the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The document accused Samsung of using his “Auto Blocker” function, installed by default, to stop the download of apps from rival application stores.
Samsung raises “Auto blocker” as a security measure whose purpose is to block the “unknown sources” apps. However, Epic Games stated in his demand that Samsung and Google used it to Block apps from any store that was not the Play Store or the Galaxy Storewithout any process so that other stores could be “authorized.”
«Auto Blocker is the last of a long series of agreements in which Google and Samsung have agreed not to compete to protect Google's monopolistic power. AUTO BLOCKER CONSOLIDA Google Play Store as the only viable way to obtain applications on Samsung devicespreventing all other stores from competing in equal terms, ”said Epic Games in a statement.
Epic Games identified “Auto Blocker” as a Google trick as a result of a previous trial
Once we know the main axis of the demand of Epic Games, we need to make another jump to the past to understand the complete picture. In 2020, the video game developer sued Google accusing him of maintaining an illegal monopoly about the distribution of Android apps through the play store.
In 2023, Epic Games won the case and the court promised to impose corrective measures to open the market to the competition. After this, the video game company He launched his Epic Games Store in August 2024in order to make a place in the apps store market.
However, that year, Samsung modified the “Auto Blocker” configuration to go from being an optional function to appear installed by default In its mobile devices. Epic saw this as an attempt by Samsung and Google to coordinate to prevent competition from being effective in the distribution of applications, which could Cancel the corrective measures expected of the 2023 sentence against Google.
«The planned effect of Auto Blocker is clear: it would cancel the measures that the court imposes on Google and would frustrate any attempt to open the market to the competition of the Android applications distribution », it is explained in the demand of 2024.
An agreement that has not been revealed
Tim Sweeney Tweetfounder and CEO of Epic Games, It is the only information that has been revealed about the agreement reached by the developer and Samsung. At the moment, no more details have been given about what measures Samsung would have taken so that Epic Games withdraw his demand.
Among the odds They would be the fact of placing “Auto Blocker” as an optional function or modify it to allow the installation of apps from stores that are not exclusively the Play Store or the Galaxy Store. In this way, a market balance would be recovered that allows open competition.
Likewise, it should be noted that Sweeney's statement occurred Two days after the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event which will begin on July 9. So we cannot avoid asking if during the event we will know any information about it.
Photo: GPT-4O
