Which? launches £3 billion action against Apple over competition law breaches

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2024-11-15 18:00:12

Around 40 million Apple customers in the UK who have obtained iCloud services over the last nine years could be entitled to a payout if the claim is successful.

Which? believes taking this action is essential to changing the behaviour of huge companies like Apple that use their market dominance to engage in anti-competitive practices that reduce choice and drive up prices for consumers.

The consumer champion’s action, filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, claims Apple has breached UK competition law by giving its iCloud storage service preferential treatment, “trapping” customers with Apple devices into using iCloud. 

iOS has a monopoly and is in control of Apple’s operating systems and it is incumbent on Apple not to use that dominance to gain an unfair advantage in related markets, like the cloud storage market. But that is exactly what has happened. 

A key tactic to achieve this has been encouraging users to sign up to iCloud for storage of photos, videos and other data while simultaneously making it difficult to use 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. iOS users then have to pay for the service once photos, notes, messages and other data go over the free 5GB limit.

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