Apple is being sued for £3bn (US$3.8bn/AU$4.6bn) by UK consumer rights group Which? after it alleged the company has been forcing its customers to use its iCloud services.
The lawsuit claims that Apple has breached competition law by effectively locking millions of UK customers into its iCloud service, forcing them to accept price hikes. Price plans range from 99p ($1.25) to £54.99 ($70), and were raised by 29% last year.
Apple has rejected the idea that its services are anti-competitive and claims that users are not forced to use iCloud; however, if the lawsuit succeeds, around 40 million Apple customers could be entitled to a payout of roughly £70 each ($88).
iCloud is built into every Apple device and acts as the company’s cloud service, which lets people store photos, files, and other data safely on the device and backs up files.
Apple phone owners only get 5GB of storage for free, and need to pay for monthly plans to get more.
Which? claims that Apple branched competition law “by giving its iCloud storage service preferential treatment, ‘trapping’ customers with Apple devices into using iCloud.”
It says that Apple’s iOS mobile operating system “has a monopoly…and it is incumbent on Apple not to use that dominance to gain an unfair advantage in related markets, like the cloud storage market.”
It added that Apple has been encouraging people to sign up to iCloud “while simultaneously making it difficult to use the alternative providers, including because Apple does not allow customers to store or back up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider.”
The lawsuit also adds that due to a lack of competition being allowed through, customers have been overcharged.
In a statement Apple said: “Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage.
“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.”
This is the latest in a line of accusations against big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung concerning anti-competitive practices.
Most famously a landmark case in the US earlier this year saw a judge rule that Google holds an illegal and unfair monopoly over the search engine market. The company is now facing another anti-trust lawsuit, and may be forced to break up parts of its business.
Check out our guides to the best photo organizing software, and the best cloud storage for photos.
