Apple lost its bid to narrow a £3B UK iCloud class action. The tribunal kept the free-tier users in.

The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled 2-1 on May 7 against Apple’s bid to narrow a £3 billion iCloud class action brought by Which?. The class stays as filed: about 40 million UK iPhone, iPad, and Mac users since November 8, 2018, paying and free-tier alike. Average payout if Which? wins: roughly £70 each, per MacRumors.

This is the procedural step that decides who gets paid. Apple wanted the case limited to iCloud paying subscribers only, which would have cut the eligible class roughly in half and undercut the headline damages figure. The tribunal majority sided with Which?, allowing the case to proceed on a “forgone consumer surplus” theory the tribunal itself called “novel.”

What we know

Which? filed the action in late 2024, alleging that Apple structures iOS to favor iCloud and makes third-party cloud-storage services materially harder to use. The specific complaints, per Which?’s own summary, include: iCloud as the default backup target with no easy alternative; the Photos app’s tight binding to iCloud Photos; and the 5 GB free tier that the group calls “designed to push customers to the paid tier.”

The damages math is built around an alleged overcharge of roughly 10% across the iCloud subscription ladder. Which? argues that, absent the lock-in, market-priced cloud storage in the UK would have undercut Apple’s tiers by enough to matter on a 40-million-user base. The £3 billion total is the cumulative overpayment plus the surplus claim.

The “forgone consumer surplus” theory is the genuinely new piece. The tribunal majority allowed Which? to claim that even people who never bought paid iCloud were harmed: had Apple priced fairly, more people would have subscribed, and the ones who chose not to subscribe at the inflated price lost consumer surplus they would have realized. Which? gave an example to the tribunal of a 200 GB tier at £2.99/month that they argue should clear at £1.99: even non-buyers, on that theory, lost £1 per month in foregone surplus. Apple’s lawyers argued the theory is unprecedented; the tribunal kept it in.

Apple’s response is the standard playbook. The company has neither admitted any of the allegations nor publicly addressed the May 7 ruling in detail. The procedural posture from here is a trial on the merits, with Apple expected to appeal the certification ruling separately.

What we don’t know

The trial date isn’t set. Which? signaled in its publicity that proceedings continue in 2026 and 2027; the tribunal didn’t fix a hearing calendar in the May 7 order. UK class actions of this scale typically run 12 to 24 months from certification to merits hearing, so a verdict before late 2027 is unlikely.

The shape of the remedy is also undecided. Which? has asked for damages and behavioral relief: refunds for affected users plus an order requiring Apple to “allow iOS users to choose alternative cloud providers” as a system-level default. That second piece would echo what the EU’s Digital Markets Act now requires of “gatekeepers” but isn’t automatic in UK law. The tribunal will decide remedies separately if liability is established.

Apple’s UK-specific response strategy is the unknown that matters most for users outside the UK. The same arguments Which? is making about iCloud favoritism in Photos and backups apply globally. If Apple settles or loses on the UK fact pattern, plaintiffs in the EU, California, and Australia will copy the playbook.

Source attribution

The procedural detail and the tribunal’s 2-1 ruling come from MacRumors’ reporting, which has been tracking the case since Which? filed it. The substantive allegations are from Which?’s own policy page, which lays out the cloud-lock-in argument in plain language. Apple has not issued a press statement on the May 7 ruling at the time of writing.

What this means for you

If you’re a UK consumer who has used iCloud (paid or free) since November 8, 2018, you’re automatically in the class. There’s no sign-up form. If Which? wins or settles, you get notified through the case administrator. The £70 average payout is an estimate, and individual amounts will vary by tier and tenure.

If you’re outside the UK, the immediate effect is nothing, but the legal theory matters. “Forgone consumer surplus” is the kind of argument that can travel. The EU’s competition authorities have been circling iCloud since the DMA designations, and California’s Cartwright Act has comparable hooks. A UK precedent that says “users who never bought your service can still be harmed by your pricing” is the lever the next jurisdiction’s plaintiffs will pull.

If you build on Apple platforms, the practical signal is that Apple’s iCloud-default behaviors are about to get expensive to defend. The Files app and Photos integrations are the specific surfaces under scrutiny. Apple has already started loosening iCloud defaults in iOS 27 for AI providers (per our recent coverage). Expect the cloud-storage version of that loosening within a year of trial verdict, whichever way it lands.