Apple sued for playing monopoly

Multimedia

4-03-2024, 16:30

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INA - SOURCES

Apple is facing a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of running an illegal monopoly over digital storage for its customers.

The suit says Jobs' Mob has "surgically" locked customers into using its iCloud storage system, the only service that can store specific data from its phones, tablets and computers.

Customers claim Apple has "unlawfully tied" the devices and iCloud, forcing them to pay over the odds for cloud storage or risk losing their data.

"Apple's unfair ban on hosting Restricted Files screws over the competition and gives iCloud an unfair advantage," the suit says. "Because of this, rival cloud services can't offer Apple customers a proper cloud-storage solution, or even a decent alternative."

The suit says iCloud has a whopping 70 per cent market share in cloud storage for Apple users. Customers also say Apple has hiked its prices because of its monopoly, making it "uncontrolled by competition."

"Apple has jacked up its iCloud prices so much that the service is making a fortune. Apple's ability to keep these prices shows how powerful its monopoly is," the suit says.

The lawsuit says Jobs' Mob has deliberately put these restraints in place to crush the competition and make huge profits from its storage plans. The customers are suing Apple as a class action, with tens of millions of members, all iCloud users.