UPDATE: “A meritless and dangerous move,” Google responds.
UPDATE 1/10/24 9am UK:Today brings fresh condemnation from Google of Epic’s latest legal foray.
“Epic’s latest lawsuit is a meritless and dangerous move,” Kleidermacher said.
“Google did not request that Samsung create their Auto Blocker feature.”
“In the US, federal agencies, NGOs and fintech associations have guidance underscoring this issue.
Android equipment makers are free to innovate and design additional safety features for their devices.
“To make this about access to a game is deliberately misleading; this is about user safety.
And Epic’s lawsuit puts their corporate interests above user protections.”
“This is a meritless lawsuit,” a Google spokesperson told Eurogamer.
“Android unit makers are free to take their own steps to keep their users safe and secure.”
Our full story lies below.
Samsung’s Auto Blocker steps add further “friction” on top of that, he continued.
“Google knows what Epic Game Store is, they’ve dealt with us.
So this warning in itself is misleading.”
“A feature Samsung turned on by default for all [new] users which caught us off-guard.”
“Samsung knows what Fortnite is,” he continued.
Samsung knows Epic Game Store.
And yet they’re calling it an ‘unknown app’.”
In short, turning it off is made to sound like a bad move.
“It’s intentional.
The purpose of this is not to protect the user from malware.
That’s what our litigation is about.
Eurogamer has contacted Samsung and Google for comment.
“We’ve probably lost $1bn dollars… but what’s the price of freedom?”
