Final September, after efficiently suing Google for working an unlawful app retailer monopoly, Epic Video games sued Samsung, too — alleging the phonemaker of illegally conspiring with Google to undermine third-party app shops. An “Auto Blocker” function on Samsung Android telephones, which was turned on by default, mechanically stored customers from putting in apps from shops that haven’t been approved by Samsung, resembling Epic’s cellular retailer.
Our solely trace is from Epic Video games CEO Tim Sweeney, on X, saying Epic received some kind of assurance from Samsung in trade for dropping its claims. “We’re dismissing our courtroom case in opposition to Samsung following the events’ discussions. We’re grateful that Samsung will handle Epic’s issues,” he writes.
However Epic isn’t saying how Samsung would possibly handle its authentic issues. Final September, Sweeney explicitly laid out two ways in which Samsung may do this: both 1) change Auto Blocker so it’s off by default, or 2) create “an trustworthy whitelisting course of” that mechanically lets trustworthy apps by Samsung’s barrier.
Epic wouldn’t affirm that Samsung has agreed to both of these issues once we requested in the present day. “Nothing extra to share past the submitting/X submit,” Epic senior comms director Elka Seems tells The Verge.
Samsung didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Given how Samsung’s Unpacked occasion is arising in two days, I’ve to surprise if the opposite shoe will drop throughout Samsung’s presentation. Will Samsung pre-load the Epic Video games Retailer on its telephones, maybe? However that shouldn’t fulfill Sweeney, who’s repeatedly mentioned he fights these lawsuits on behalf of all builders and never simply his personal retailer.
“If we’d fought Epic v. Apple and Epic v. Google solely on the idea of Epic getting particular privileges, maybe settlement discussions with Apple and Google might need been fruitful,” Sweeney informed me final September, once I requested why he didn’t simply ask Samsung to make the Epic Video games Retailer a certified supply. “[I]f we did that, we’d be promoting out all builders,” he mentioned.
Whereas Epic has dropped its claims in opposition to Samsung in the present day, it hasn’t technically dropped the lawsuit, which was filed in opposition to each Samsung and Google to begin. The claims in opposition to Google will proceed, not less than for the second: they’re counts 8, 10, and 12 in a model new First Amended Criticism that I’ve embedded under.
