Consumer rights organisation Which? has lodged a £3bn lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of breaching º£½ÇÊÓƵ competition law with its iCloud services.
Which? alleges that Apple has been favouring its own iCloud storage services and making it challenging for customers using Apple devices to utilise alternative data storage providers, as reported by .
The claim, submitted to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, suggests that customers are effectively locked in as Apple does not permit them to store or back-up all their phone's data with a third-party provider. Consequently, iOS users have to pay for the service once they exceed the free 5GB limit.
Which? argues that this lack of competition results in consumers being overcharged annually on their monthly iCloud subscription fees.
The lawsuit points out that Apple has increased the price of iCloud for º£½ÇÊÓƵ consumers by between 20 per cent and 29 per cent across its storage tiers in 2023.
Which? is now seeking damages for affected Apple customers who have used iCloud services since 1 October 2015. The group estimates that individual consumers could be owed an average of £70 depending on the duration they have been paying for the services.
Anabel Hoult, chief executive of Which?, has claimed that Apple customers are due nearly £3 billion due to the tech giant's imposition of its iCloud services on consumers and stifling competition from rival services. "By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off º£½ÇÊÓƵ consumers without facing repercussions." she stated.
A similar case against Apple regarding this issue is already underway in the US, but it has not yet reached a conclusion.
In response to the claim, an Apple spokesperson defended the company's practices: "Apple believes in providing our customers with choices. Our users are not required to use Icloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage."
The spokesperson added: "In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible, whether it's to Icloud or another service. We reject any suggestion that our Icloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise."
