Apple is facing a £3 billion legal claim over alleged competition law breaches

Around 40 million Apple customers in Britain could be entitled to an average payout of £70 if a major new legal challenge is successful.

The consumer publication Which one? has announced what it describes as a landmark legal claim against the company for alleged competition law violations. It alleges that users have been unfairly locked into “scam” iCloud prices through anti-competitive behavior, and is launching a £3 billion (about $3.8 billion) action to obtain compensation.

“Which? believes that taking this action is essential to changing the behavior of major companies like Apple, who use their market dominance to engage in anti-competitive practices that limit choice and drive up prices for consumers,” the release said in a press release.

The central claim is that Apple’s iOS ecosystem is monopolistic and that the company uses its power over the platform to give preferential treatment to iCloud, the cloud storage service.

“A key tactic to achieve this,” says Which?, “is to encourage users to sign in to iCloud to store photos, videos and other data, while at the same time making it difficult to use alternative providers, partly because Apple does not allow customers to store or back up all of their phone data to a third-party provider.”

As a result, revenue flows into Apple’s own coffers at the expense of competing offerings. This in turn allows Apple to charge prices that the publication claims are above market price: Which? claims that consumers are being overcharged more and more each year, reaching £13.36 by 2024. Over many years these additional costs will add up, and what? believes the average consumer will be owed £70 in damages, although this will vary depending on how long they have been paying for iCloud.

This isn’t the first time Apple has been accused of monopolistic behavior; the company has been fighting such claims for years. (It will come as no surprise that Apple’s official position is that this is the case is not a monopoly.) Earlier this year, the company was too sued by the US Department of Justice because of his alleged iPhone monopoly. Similar studies have been carried out in Britain and the EU.

If you are a UK consumer and have paid for iCloud at any time since October 1, 2015, you may be entitled to compensation. Visit www.cloudclaim.co.uk for more information about the promotion and to register to receive updates on its progress.