INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Epic Games, buoyed by the massive success of Fortnite, has spent the last few years throwing elbows in the mobile industry to get its app
It scored an antitrust win against Google in late 2023, and the following year it went after Samsung for deploying "Auto Blocker" on its
Android phones, which would make it harder for users to install the Epic Games Store
Now, the parties have settled the case just days before Samsung will unveil its latest phones.The Epic Store drama began several years ago
when the company defied Google and Apple rules about accepting outside payments in the mega-popular Fortnite
Both stores pulled the app, and Epic sued
Apple emerged victorious, with Fortnite only returning to the iPhone recently
Google, however, lost the case after Epic showed it worked behind the scenes to stymie the development of app stores like Epic's.Google is
still working to avoid penalties in that long-running case, but Epic thought it smelled a conspiracy last year
It filed a similar lawsuit against Samsung, accusing it of implementing a feature to block third-party app stores
The issue comes down to the addition of a feature to Samsung phones called Auto Blocker, which is similar to Google's new Advanced
It protects against attacks over USB, disables link previews, and scans apps more often for malicious activity
Most importantly, it blocks app sideloading
Without sideloading, there's no way to install the Epic Games Store or any of the content inside it.