UK tribunal greenlights £3bn claim against Apple iCloud

38.5 million iPhone and iPad users could be due a payout

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has given the green light for a major collective action against Apple to proceed, allowing consumer group Which? to bring damages claim on behalf of around 38.5 million UK iPhone and iPad users.

Which? alleges that Apple abused its dominant position in iOS by unfairly favouring its own iCloud service, restricting consumers ability to use rival cloud storage providers while steering them towards iCloud.

The claim was brought by the Consumers' Association (Which?) under section 47A of the Competition Act 1998, which allows follow-on or stand-alone competition damages claims to be brought before the CAT.

Which? applied for a Collective Proceedings Order (CPO), a type of class action, in 2024, on behalf of UK iOS users who allegedly paid more for iCloud storage because of Apple’s behaviour.

Apple argued that the claims were unsuitable as a basis for a CPO, but CAT has rejected those arguments and allowed the claim to proceed.

Nature of the case

Which? alleges that Apple abused its dominant position for iOS services by:

• Preventing certain file types from being backed up to third-party cloud services;
• Restricting full-device backups to iCloud; and
• Deploying "unfair choice architecture" that nudges users towards iCloud.

The case is significant for the UK because it combines technical platform design choices with consumer harm, rather than focusing purely on pricing or commissions.

The claim is being brought on an ‘opt-out’ basis, meaning that UK iPad and iPhone users are automatically included unless they actively opt out.

CAT has agreed that the case should be allowed to proceed as a collective action. It said the claims raise the same core issues for a very large group of consumers, making a group case more practical than millions of individual claims.

The Tribunal also dismissed Apple’s concerns about how the case is being funded and confirmed that Which? is suitable to act on behalf of consumers.

Potential financial implications for Apple

Which? previously indicated that the claim could be worth up to £3 billion in total damages, with an average payout per user of around £70.

The Tribunal accepted that while individual consumer losses from Apple’s alleged misbehaviour are modest, the “aggregate damages could be very substantial”, making collective proceedings appropriate.

Any liability would depend on Apple being found to be in violation of rules on dominance, abuse and causation - all of which it denies.

What happens next?

The case now moves into the litigation phase.

Apple is likely to appeal the decision to grant a collective action. When the case opened last year, the company denied abusing its dominant position, arguing that consumers have plenty of iCloud alternatives to choose from.

In a separate collective action case, CAT ruled last year that the Apple had abused its dominant position in the mobile app market by imposing "excessive and unfair" charges on developers through its App Store. That decision could see the Apple paying around £1.5 billion in damages to an estimated 36 million UK consumers.