Apple is under renewed legal pressure with an antitrust lawsuit over the dominance of its iCloud services.
British consumer watchdog “Which?” is filing a three billion dollar lawsuit against Apple. Apple allegedly “locked” its customers into iCloud services, thus giving competitors no chance. According to the British watchdog, Apple is violating competition law by doing so. They believe Apple customers are owed nearly three billion as a result of imposing iCloud services.
Market dominance
British watchdog Which? believes Apple is giving “preferential treatment” to its iCloud storage service. Apple is allegedly encouraging its users to store photos, videos and other data in iCloud. “We believe Apple customers are owed nearly $3 billion as a result of the technology giant forcing its iCloud services on customers and cutting off competition from competing services.”
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In addition, Apple is taking away users’ ability to store their data through third-party storage providers. Apple users get 5 GB of free iCloud storage, and pay $0.99 monthly in the U.S. if they want more. “iOS has a monopoly and control over Apple’s operating systems, and Apple’s job is not to use that dominance to gain an unfair advantage in related markets, such as the cloud storage market,” he said. But that is exactly what has happened”.
Legal pressure
Apple is currently under legal pressure. The company may be facing its first DMA fine from the European Commission, for undermining alternative iOS app stores with its App Store policy.
In addition, Apple recently received a warning from the EU about geoblocking practices with its Apple Media Services. Apple would block certain services including App Store, Apple Music and Apple TV+ in certain regions. The company is given a month to respond to the findings for this.