Fortnite maker Epic Games today filed a lawsuit against Google and Samsung, accusing the two companies of anti-competitive behavior that prevents Android users from downloading games and apps outside the Google Play Store.

At issue is a Samsung feature called Auto Blocker, which is designed to prevent Galaxy devices from installing applications from unauthorized sources. Samsung says Auto Blocker is enabled by default and protects users from unknown apps and malware, but it does disable sideloading.

With Auto Blocker, when users attempt to install an app from an unknown or unauthorized source, they will receive a pop-up warning stating that the installation has been prevented. Auto Blocker can be overwritten while setting up a Galaxy device, and there is also an option to temporarily remove it. Auto Blocker was first introduced last October, and ‌Epic Games‌ says the feature is essentially a “coordinated effort” to block competition in app distribution.

“Auto Blocker cements the Google Play Store as the only viable way to get apps on Samsung devices, preventing every other store from competing on a level playing field,” says ‌Epic Games‌.

‌Epic Games‌ accuses Samsung and Google of creating Auto Blocker with the aim of undermining the outcome of the Epic Games v. Google lawsuit, in which a nine-person jury agreed that Google had an app store monopoly and that the agreements of Google with OEMs were anti-competitive.

When we spoke to journalists earlier today (via The edge), Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said he had no evidence that Google and Samsung had colluded over the Auto Blocker feature, but he hopes to find evidence during the document discovery process. He also didn’t ask Samsung to make ‌Epic Games‌ an authorized source for games.

Furthermore, Sweeney claimed that Epic filed the lawsuit on behalf of all developers, and not just to get special treatment for ‌Epic Games‌. “If we had fought Epic vs. Apple and Epic vs. Google solely on the basis that Epic was getting special privileges, settlement discussions with Apple and Google might have been fruitful,” Sweeney said. “But if we did that, we would sell out all the developers.”

Evidence from the Epic v. Apple trial suggests that Sweeney at the time sought a special deal with Apple that would not have been available to all developers. In 2020, Sweeney wrote a letter to Apple asking for permission to add support for third-party payment processors in Fortnite, and it wasn’t until Apple said no that Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple. When questioned about this letter during the trial, Sweeney confirmed that he was looking for a special deal for Fortnite and would have accepted it even if Apple had not offered the same deal to other developers.

Sweeney has suggested several times that the lawsuits Epic is filing against Apple, Google and Samsung apply to all developers, but realistically Epic Games is looking out for its own interests.

‌Epic Games‌ is seeking the court to force Samsung to remove Auto Blocker as a default device setting. Samsung in a statement The edge said that Auto Blocker is a security and privacy feature that users can disable at any time. “We intend to vigorously dispute Epic Game’s unsubstantiated claims,” Samsung said. Google called the lawsuit “meritless.”