Epic Games drops app store-related antitrust lawsuit against Samsung

Park Sung-chul, CEO of Epic Games Korea, center, attends a press conference to introduce the company’s strategy for expanding Fortnite in the Korean market at Andaz Hotel in Gangnam District, Seoul, June 11. Yonhap

The head of U.S. gaming giant Epic Games said Tuesday the company has dropped an antitrust lawsuit against Samsung Electronics involving the blocking of software originating from sources outside of app stores of Google and Samsung on the South Korean tech company's mobile devices.

"We're dismissing our court case against Samsung following the parties' discussions. We are grateful that Samsung will address Epic's concerns," Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Epic Games, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Epic Games, best known for popular online shooter Fortnite, had filed the lawsuit last year in the U.S. over a feature on Samsung devices that automatically blocks the installation of apps from sources outside the Google Play Store and Samsung's own Galaxy Store.

Epic had argued that this mechanism constituted an unfair barrier to competition. Epic users had to download the company's apps from its official website after manually disabling the feature.

With the case against Samsung now dropped, Epic is expected to continue its legal dispute against Google alone. The two U.S. tech giants have been engaged in a broader legal fight over app store policies and market dominance.