Apple faces £3 billion UK claim over iCloud competition rules

Apple is facing a £3 billion UK claim over its iCloud rules, a case that could leave around 40 million iPhone and iPad users in line for compensation even before any payout is decided. Which? says eligible consumers who have used iCloud since 8 November 2018 could be included on an opt-out basis, covering both paying and non-paying users, with the average recovery estimated at about £70 depending on how long they paid for storage.

The consumer group says Apple breached UK competition law by failing to give iPhone and iPad owners a real choice of cloud storage provider, instead steering them toward iCloud and making rival services harder to use on iOS. It also alleges Apple raised iCloud prices in 2023 by between 20% and 29% across storage tiers, a move Which? says shows why the dispute matters for household budgets as well as market rules.

Apple has rejected the suggestion that its practices are anti-competitive. The company has said users are not required to use iCloud, that many rely on third-party alternatives and that it works to make data transfer easy. Apple has also said its pricing is similar to competitors, signaling it intends to fight the claim rather than settle it.

The case is being watched closely because it goes beyond one storage product and into the structure of Apple’s wider ecosystem. Which? argues that the way iCloud is built into iPhones and iPads can lock users into Apple’s own services and weaken price competition, a theory that could shape how regulators and courts assess digital markets in the UK. For consumers, the immediate attraction is the chance of redress; for policymakers, the bigger question is whether default settings and technical design can amount to market power in practice.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal registered the case on 11 November 2024, heard the collective proceedings order application on 19 and 20 November 2025, issued judgment on 2 April 2026 and rejected Apple’s strike-out attempt on 6 May 2026. The tribunal made the collective proceedings order on 17 June 2026, and it says the claims concern alleged abuse of dominance from 1 October 2015 to date, with the EU law element running from 1 October 2015 to 31 December 2020. A trial is scheduled for the first available date in October 2028 and is expected to last nine weeks, keeping the dispute alive as a long-running test of consumer redress and competition enforcement in digital services.