June 24(Sky News) — the U.K. Competition Court of Appeal has issued a ruling granting the U.K. consumer rights group Which? The £ 3bn class-action lawsuit against Apple, filed on behalf of about 40m UK iCloud users, is due to go to trial in October 2028 and is expected to last nine weeks.
It is understood that in November 2024, the rights group filed an application with the UK competition Court of Appeal, alleging that Apple had engaged in anti-competitive practices since 2015. The allegations suggest that Apple has tied users to its own iCloud services by preventing third-party cloud storage services from being deeply integrated with iOS devices, and has used this to set steep subscription fees, alleged violations of the UK 1998“Competition Act” relevant provisions, as well as the pre-brexit application of the“Treaty on the operation of the European Union” anti-monopoly provisions.
Under Apple’s current UK pricing scheme, users can use up to 5GB of iCloud storage for free, with the extra storage available for a fee ranging from # 0.99(50GB) to # 54.99(12TB) per month. Rights groups have calculated that in a highly competitive market, a reasonable monthly fee for a 200GB cloud storage package would be just # 1.99; if the case is successful, each eligible user could be compensated between # 70 and # 77.
One of the core points of dispute in this lawsuit is the legal theory of“Abandoned consumer surplus” put forward by the defender. The argument goes that even users who have never paid to upgrade their iCloud capacity have lost out because of Apple’s alleged abuse of market dominance, which has deprived them of the opportunity to choose cloud storage services at fair prices. The court approved the litigation logic by a 2-1 majority vote, and some judges held different opinions, warning that the calculation of compensation based on the assumption of consumer demand may lead to a large number of similar derivative litigations. Apple has appealed against this core legal finding, saying the issue is an entirely new legal issue that could have broad implications for subsequent antitrust cases.
Apple has categorically denied all antitrust allegations. A spokesman for the company said the allegations were unsubstantiated, saying that users were free to choose from a variety of third-party cloud storage products on the market and that there was no mandatory iCloud service, he said the claims were based on“Speculation”. The hearing on June 3,2026 made it clear that Apple’s appeal would not block the overall process of the class action.
The document sets out the user coverage boundaries for this class action: users who used iCloud between 8 November 2018 and 8 June 2026 and were habitually resident in the UK on 8 June 2026, will be automatically included in the claim group without having to submit a separate application to participate. Users who wish to opt out of this class action claim must submit an application through cloudclaim.co.uk by 8 October 2026.
The court had already completed several rounds of pre-trial hearings, issued a basic ruling on class-action leave on April 2,2026, and rejected Apple’s application to dismiss the case on May 6, to clear the way for a hearing in October 2028. (Chun Jun)