The UK consumer-advocacy group Which? accused Apple of forcing iPhone and iPad owners to use iCloud, and then overcharging them for the service.
It’s asking for a hefty £3 billion ($3.8 billion) in compensation. That’s about £70 per consumer.
Which? claims iCloud is an ‘abuse of dominance’
iCloud is Apple’s cloud-storage system for all its computers. It can be used to hold a wide range of data including photographs taken with an iPhone camera, notes, backups and much more.
“Which? alleges Apple abused its dominant position by not giving iPhone and iPad users a choice of cloud storage provider. Instead, it steered them to its own iCloud service, and this led to Apple charging customers excessive iCloud subscription fees,” the consumer-advocacy group said Wednesday.
It argues that Apple broke UK competition law by requiring owners of its devices to use iCloud and not providing alternatives. This despite the users’ data actually being stored on a variety of servers operated by Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
“iPhone users are tied to iCloud because they cannot store or back up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider, as Apple doesn’t allow certain data to be stored other than on iCloud,” claims Which?.
Which? wants £3B
The group says that anyone who used an iOS device and iCloud services and live (or lived) in the UK at any point on or after October 2015 could be due compensation. That’s if it wins its claim, of course. By UK law, potential beneficiaries have to opt out. Otherwise they are included.
The next step is for Which? to ask the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s permission for its claim to proceed. This is a court that specializes in hearing competition law cases, including collective actions like this one. Only if the case gets certified can a hearing be held.
As noted, the initial claim is £3 billion ($3.8 billion), or roughly £70 ($89) per consumer, though they’ll surely get less than that.
More information is available at cloudclaim.co.uk.
