Overview
- The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal, which ruled Thursday in a 2–1 decision, kept non‑paying iCloud users in the class and sent the case toward trial.
- Consumer group Which? alleges Apple steered users to iCloud by making rival cloud services harder to use on iOS, while Apple denies anti‑competitive conduct.
- The claim seeks about £3 billion for roughly 40 million UK users, with estimated average payouts near £70 per person if Which? ultimately wins.
- Judges permitted claims based on forgone consumer surplus, a theory that treats people priced out of a service as having lost value they would have paid in a fair market.
- Eligible UK iCloud users from November 8, 2018 to the present are automatically included unless they opt out, and the class covers both paying and free users.