California, Monday, March 11, 2024-Tech giant Apple is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California, accusing it of unfairly dominating the cloud storage market through its iCloud platform.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, alleges that Apple’s practices stifle competition and force users to pay inflated prices. 1
Plaintiffs claim Apple restricts certain iPhone and iPad data storage exclusively to iCloud, effectively locking users into the company’s ecosystem. This practice, they argue, has resulted in iCloud becoming a dominant force in the market, with an estimated 70% share, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit further alleges that Apple leverages its market power to maintain high profit margins on iCloud subscriptions. They claim these profits are “almost pure” due to the lack of competition.
The proposed class action seeks to represent millions of users who have allegedly been overcharged due to Apple’s practices. It seeks unspecified damages and potentially a court order requiring Apple to change its practices.
This lawsuit comes amid growing scrutiny of big tech companies and their control over user data and services. It remains to be seen how the courts will rule on the specific allegations against Apple, but the case is sure to raise questions about the company’s dominance in the cloud storage market.
- iCloud Monopoly: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/jnvwxbylapw/Apple-icloud-antitrust.pdf[↩]
