Last year, a jury found that Google broke the law by suppressing options to download Android apps outside the company’s official Google Play digital store.
But the company that won the antitrust lawsuit says Google has found a new way to hold back competition and entrench its illegal monopoly.
The allegations are the subject of a new antitrust lawsuit on Monday filed by Epic Games, creator of the popular Fortnite video games, against Google and Samsung, the largest maker of Android phones.
Epic alleges that Google and Samsung have schemed to essentially use Samsung as a proxy for behavior that the jury said Google had used to illegally squash competition.
Epic takes issue with an “Auto Blocker” setting, which it says Samsung has made standard on its new phones. This setting imposes onerous extra steps and warnings, according to Epic, and discourages people who try to download Epic apps directly from the company’s website.
Samsung has said Auto Blocker provides extra security, but Epic argues its real purpose is to discourage alternatives to Google’s and Samsung’s app storefronts. Epic said the Auto Blocker feature “protects, first and foremost, Google’s illegal monopoly.”
Epic’s lawsuit paints a dire portrait of Big Tech giants like Google acting with impunity to circumvent regulations and legal orders seeking to restrict their power.
Google didn’t have an immediate comment on the new lawsuit. The company has previously said it would appeal last year’s jury’s verdict. Samsung didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes as the companies await an order from the judge overseeing Epic’s previous case. He’s expected to force Google to permit more and easily accessible options for people to download Android apps.
Samsung isn’t subject to the judge’s decision, but he could prohibit Google from collaborating with partners like Samsung to ensure equal footing for app competition.
Unlike with iPhones in the United States, people with Android phones are able to download apps from an app maker’s website or from unofficial app stores. Last month, Epic started an unofficial mini-app store where people can download its Fortnite games and other apps to Android devices.
But downloading unofficial apps involves many steps with multiple pop-warnings on Android phones. Most people just use Google’s official Google Play app store. Epic says Samsung’s new feature has made it even harder for people to download its unofficial app store.
Epic is one of the chief protagonists of a global effort to force Google and Apple to loosentheir 15-year control over smartphone apps. Epic says the two companies make themselves the unaccountable dictators of which apps are permitted on phones, and the fees they charge drive up the prices people pay for in-app purchases.
Epic and other app makers want more options for app downloads and purchases — similar to the multiple options to download and buy software for computers. They argue more app competition to Google and Apple would lower prices for consumers and unleash new ideas.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney acknowledged during a news conference that the company doesn’t have specific evidence of collusion between Google and Samsung over the Auto Blocker. He noted that the jury had found the two companies previously collaborated to suppress app stores that competed with Google Play.
Epic’s lawsuit spotlights a challenge of regulatory and legal restraints to corporate superpowers like Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta. Even when courts or regulators find the companies illegally hold back competition to enrich themselves, it’s not easy to undo their influence.
Epic’s twin antitrust lawsuits against Google are part of a raft of allegations that the company kneecaps rivals.
A federal judge recently ruled Google’s lucrative web search business is an illegal monopoly and U.S. government officials also have an antitrust case pending against Google’s advertising technology operation. Online review site Yelp also recently sued Google over claims that the company improperly steered web searches to Google’s own customer reviews.