Apple Questions Funding Behind UK iCloud Lawsuit

[MacRumors]

Apple today challenged the funding behind a $4 billion UK lawsuit during a tribunal hearing, raising new concerns about the iCloud class action as the company battles further antitrust scrutiny.

The case was initiated by consumer group Which on behalf of consumers, alleging that Apple's iCloud storage practices lock users into the service and cause them to pay more for cloud storage than they would have paid under more competitive conditions. Which is seeking compensation and an injunction to prevent Apple from continuing the alleged conduct.

The proposed class period runs from 1 October 2015 to the present, meaning that the claim targets both historic and ongoing conduct by Apple. The application also seeks injunctive relief aimed at preventing Apple from continuing the alleged abusive behavior in the future.

Apple told the Competition Appeal Tribunal that Which had not provided enough clarity about its third-party funder, Litigation Capital Management (LCM), which is paying for the legal action. LCM recently suffered a severe financial decline, losing 99% of its share value from its November 2024 level, leaving it worth about $16 million. Apple argued that this collapse raised questions about whether LCM could still support the lawsuit.

It also said that if it were allowed to pursue an appeal later in the process or if Which's funding is withdrawn, Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them. The company added that both Apple and the proposed class representative should have been informed sooner and more clearly about LCM's situation.

The funding dispute emerges days after the tribunal refused Apple permission to appeal a separate ruling in a long-running developer class action, which found that Apple had abused its dominant position in iOS app distribution and in-app payment processing. That judgment concluded that Apple's App Store commission structure led to higher prices for consumers and restricted competition, leaving Apple facing potential damages of more than $1 billion.

The tribunal has not yet indicated when it will make a decision and the hearing continues.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Questions Funding Behind UK iCloud Lawsuit

 

[GMShadow]

LCM recently suffered a severe financial decline, losing 99% of its share value from its November 2024 level, leaving it worth about $16 million.

How long until we find out it was also funded by USAID?

 

[aidler]

Exactly there is the mistake:
“Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them.”
A company the size of Apple should always have to cover its legal costs in full and not be able to recover them.

 

[delsoul]

The UK and EU is one giant No-competition clause. Nobody is allowed to compete, or do better, against another. The ultimate participation trophy event.

 

[switz]

I really do not want the prices of Apple equipment to be raised because a party that has financial problems is suing and possibly collapses and cannot pay the the costs of the litigation that are allowed by law to be recovered by Apple.

Getting tired of folks being entitled to others creative works and not paying compensation for that knowledge.

 

[jbn858273]

My Apple account is still in the UK despite not having lived there for many years. I have no problem with my iCloud and Apple Family subscriptions and did not ask anyone to intervene on my behalf.

 

[vertsix]

"The case was initiated by consumer group Which on behalf of consumers, alleging that Apple's iCloud storage practices lock users into the service and cause them to pay more for cloud storage than they would have paid under more competitive conditions."

I mean, he ain't wrong.

 

[gstevie]

A company the size of Apple should always have to cover its legal costs in full and not be able to recover them.

So countless people/organisations could frivolously take them to court, and Apple has to spend to defend themselves and never has the opportunity to recover any of that?

 

[GMShadow]

Exactly there is the mistake:
“Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them.”
A company the size of Apple should always have to cover its legal costs in full and not be able to recover them.

What you propose would only encourage nuisance lawsuits under the concept of "the process is the punishment".

 

[surferfb]

Exactly there is the mistake:
“Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them.”
A company the size of Apple should always have to cover its legal costs in full and not be able to recover them.

The ability to recover legal costs is essential to preventing frivolous lawsuits. If a plaintiff can sue with no downside risk and the defendant can never recover legal fees even when the case is baseless, you create a system where large companies get flooded with nuisance suits simply because they have deep pockets. The ability to recover costs doesn't just protect defendants from nuisance suits, it also protects the integrity and workload of the courts.

 

[repoman016]

I think we can all agree that Apple charges insane $$ for storage upgrades on their hardware. Is that to push people to sign up for iCloud? Maybe. But.. you dont have to....
As someone who doesn't pay for iCloud, fill me in on what the problem is here? Is there no alternative to iCloud in the UK? Can you not download your cloud storage and move to a different cloud service if you felt like you were overpaying?

 

[ApAx]

There are reputable services out there that can provide cloud storage for less than $0.02 / Gigabyte?

 

[rp2011]

Not only are we able to choose which phone we want, but under my plan, Verizon offers me Cloud storage at no extra cost, I also pay for both One Drive now and Google Cloud for different reasons. That's a lot of cloud storage and not including my iCloud Storage.There is no conspiracy pr anything keeping you from any cloud service, including none.

 

[cjsuk]

Which can go to hell. Absolute assmonkeys. Literally everyone I know who has picked something based on their consumer recommendations has had serious problems with whatever they bought. They are like the village morons in Hot Fuzz. FOR THE GREATER GOOD.

If you don't like iCloud you don't have to use it. There's Google Drive, OneDrive, This Drive, That Drive. Who gives a crapola.

Using NOTHING is an option to. That's the one I pick because why the hell would I have all my data in someone else's computer?

All this does is make lawyers rich. And that costs us consumers more.

 

[Mousse]

LCM recently suffered a severe financial decline, losing 99% of its share value from its November 2024 level, leaving it worth about $16 million. Apple argued that this collapse raised questions about whether LCM could still support the lawsuit.

Interesting that November 2024 was when the class action lawsuit started. I might be wrong, but I think investors don't think the lawsuit was a good idea. I'm not a fan of Apple's pricing plan (why no the 512GB-1TB plan?), but I think it's a 🐂💩 lawsuit.

 

[testcard]

I hate to be that guy, but just for the record it’s “Which?”, with a question mark at the end. You’re welcome 😉

 

[justanotherdave]

Exactly there is the mistake:
“Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them.”
A company the size of Apple should always have to cover its legal costs in full and not be able to recover them.

Bull. Then anyone could file a nuisance lawsuit without ever having to worry about paying costs for losing.

 

[justanotherdave]

I’m curious which other cloud providers are substantially cheaper than iCloud. Last time I checked the main ones (Google, DropBox) had similar prices.

Or are the referring to those fly-by-night cloud providers that offer unlimited storage for only $1.99 a month.

 

[OGdrknight]

I once was scammed into buying a lifetime subscription for a few terabytes of cloud storage from a company for $49. Unfortunately, they do not guarantee uptime or usability. It’s buried in their TOU, which meant like many, the service is unusable and we couldn’t get our money back because of the TOU..

Yeah you can get something cheaper but in my experience you end up losing money and data. There are so many fly by night cloud storage scams going on right now you never know if you just got scammed or did a hacker just steal all your data.

When I tried to compare iCloud pricing to other reliable cloud storage providers like Google and Amazon it was virtually same.

Not sure what the point of this lawsuit if the majority of reliable cloud storage is similarly priced and low cost ones typically do not work well or at all and potentially for your data to end up for sell on the dark web is higher.

 

[deeddawg]

Exactly there is the mistake:
“Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them.”
A company the size of Apple should always have to cover its legal costs in full and not be able to recover them.

You know who pays Apple's legal costs if they win and can't recover them from LCM?

You and I do.

Same with fines. They're passed on to consumers eventually.

Also - guess what happens if a company can't recover legal costs? Everyone and their neighbor files frivolous lawsuits aiming to get a settlement payout because it's cheaper than going through the full court case.

 

[coolfactor]

"The case was initiated by consumer group Which on behalf of consumers, alleging that Apple's iCloud storage practices lock users into the service and cause them to pay more for cloud storage than they would have paid under more competitive conditions."

I mean, he ain't wrong.

How do you figure? Apple offers 50GB for just $0.99 a month, and $9.99 for 2TB. Dropbox, by comparison offers the same 2TB for $11.99 when paid monthly, so seems that Apple is cheaper for the same amount of storage.

Apple's Cloud Storage prices are extremely competitive and overall quite generous.

 

[TumbleDryer]

This is a load of ********! Im from the UK. I chose Apple to be in a more secure environment and I'm happy to be 'locked in' as there is much less chance of compatibility issues and security holes etc. - although the ever declining quality of software is making me question such a decision.

I wish the government et al would just sod off and stop trying to make our lives less secure because they're **** at what they do and can't break the encryption. I always find it odd that they only target Apple. I can't say I've heard Google or any other hardware and software behemoth being bugged to let them into the system. That tells me the others just happily let the government do what it wants whether against the law or not or that their software is simply not secure.

All this crap about lack of choice, App Store limitations etc. People choose Apple knowing what they're getting into. It's pretty much THE reason why people choose Apple. These developers moaning about limited options etc. They agreed to the terms, developed an app then start moaning about it. Does my head in.

Sorry, rant ending...... now!

 

[WarmWinterHat]

All this crap about lack of choice, App Store limitations etc. People choose Apple knowing what they're getting into. It's pretty much THE reason why people choose Apple. These developers moaning about limited options etc. They agreed to the terms, developed an app then start moaning about it. Does my head in.

Sorry, rant ending...... now!

No, people choose Apple because it's what they had before, or it's what their friends suggested, or they liked the look. I doubt asking 100 iPhone users, anywhere, their reason for buying a phone, would you find more than 1 or 2, if that, that would say App Store limitations, or locking them in, as a reason.

For me, on the other hand, it's one of the reasons that I might leave the ecosystem.

Not in the UK, but I would like to be able to back my phone to NAS, directly, without my Mac being in the middle. The only "cloud" I use, is my own harddrives.

 

[DownUnderDan]

Bull. Then anyone could file a nuisance lawsuit without ever having to worry about paying costs for losing.

Hmm. I think the current US President got a bit ahead of your hypothesis.

 

[germanbeer007]

No, people choose Apple because it's what they had before

why did they have it before? because they chose it

, or it's what their friends suggested

My friend is immune from suggesting bad ideas? What?

, or they liked the look.

"Ohhh shiny. I buy" and then realizes the product doesn't work for them - whose fault is that?