Apple owes British iPhone owners as much as £3bn after charging “rip-off prices” for its iCloud storage service, a legal challenge has claimed.
The consumer group Which? has filed a claim at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, accusing Apple of unfairly “trapping” customers into paying excessive monthly fees for iCloud.
It says that if the claim is successful, 40m Apple customers could be entitled to around £70 each.
Which? claims that Apple is a “dominant player” in the smartphone market. It accuses the US company of abusing a monopoly to gain an unfair advantage in the cloud storage market and charge high prices, breaking competition law.
The group argues that Apple has made it difficult to use alternative cloud storage providers to back up their phone’s data such as photos.
Apple offers users five gigabytes (GB) of free iCloud storage for iPhone users, a capacity limit that has not changed since the company introduced iCloud in 2011, despite photos and app backups taking up significantly more space on modern smartphones.
The 5GB limit means that millions of customers pay a monthly fee for iCloud, ranging from 99p for 50GB to £54.99 a month for 12 terabytes (TB), a level designed for professional photographers or videographers.
Apple raised monthly prices by as much as 29pc last year, increasing the cost of a 200GB plan from £2.49 to £2.99 and its 2TB plan from £6.99 to £8.99.
Users are able to back up their iPhone to an alternative cloud service manually by plugging their iPhone into a computer, or they can back up their photos using separate apps.
Apple was sued in the US earlier this year on similar grounds. The company has called the claims in the US lawsuit “implausible” and has sought to have it dismissed.
Anabel Hoult, Which?’s chief executive, said: “We believe Apple customers are owed nearly £3bn as a result of the tech giant forcing its iCloud services on customers and cutting off competition from rival services.
“By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off UK consumers without facing repercussions.
“Taking this legal action means we can help consumers to get the redress that they are owed, deter similar behaviour in the future and create a better, more competitive market.”
Which? said British consumers would be automatically opted into the lawsuit if they live in the UK.
The group has previously launched competition proceedings against Qualcomm, the microchip company, claiming it abused its dominant position to raise the prices consumers paid for smartphones. Qualcomm is fighting the claim, which is set for trial next year.
Apple said that iPhone users are not required to use iCloud and that almost half of customers do not pay for a subscription.
A spokesman said: “Apple believes in providing our customers with choices. Our users are not required to use iCloud and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage.
“In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible – whether it’s to iCloud or another service. We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anticompetitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”