iCloud Lock-in: Apple still faces billion-pound fine threat in UK
A consumer protection group wants to sue Apple for up to 3 billion pounds on behalf of iCloud users. Apple wanted the lawsuit to only include paying customers.
iCloud logo (in false colours): Is Apple forcing users into its own cloud?
(Image: Apple)
The lawsuit by British consumer advocates against Apple over alleged forced iCloud usage may proceed in its current scope. Apple's lawyers' attempt to limit the proceedings to paying customers was unsuccessful with the responsible court. The consumer protection organization Which? wants to sue Apple for up to 3 billion British pounds (3.47 billion euros). Around 40 million Apple customers in the country are to receive up to 70 pounds per person because Apple allegedly makes it impossible to use other cloud services and also only gives users 5 GB of free storage. The proceedings have been ongoing since 2024.
Unusual legal construct is successful
The responsible tribunal has now decided by a majority (two judges for, one against) that the proceedings affect all iCloud users – both those who pay for iCloud+ and regular Apple users who use iCloud as part of the free service. The lawyers for Which? (and its litigation funder) are acting in a novel legal way: Usually, no damage occurs if a customer has not paid for a faulty service.
Videos by heise
However, the consumer advocates assume a so-called Forgone Consumer Surplus (FCS). This is said to be the amount that customers have missed out on due to Apple's market-abusing behavior. The idea: Due to the “unfair” pricing of the iCloud+ service, customers could not buy it, even though they actually wanted to. Which? believes, for example, that a competitively compliant offer for the 200 GB package would have cost only 1.99 pounds instead of the current 2.99 pounds if Apple had not acted illegally. This illegality, according to the consumer advocates, is evident from the fact that Apple only provides 5 GB of free storage.
Customers affected since November 2018
The proceedings will now continue for all iCloud customers. The court must determine, among other things, whether iCloud was illegally favored within iOS. Customers who have used iCloud since November 2018 are affected. Which? is collecting these as part of a list to be able to approach Apple.
Apple most recently tried in November to stop the proceedings in another way: The company assumed that the litigation funder engaged by Which? would not be able to sustain the lawsuit economically. Indeed, the company had financial problems meanwhile. How this point of the process will proceed is still unclear.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
