Apple Class Action Says iCloud Service is Misrepresented

Apple Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit by customers who claim that their data was supposed to be stored by the company’s iCloud service, but it was actually assigned to cloud services offered by other entities.

Plaintiffs Andrea M. Williams and James Stewart say Apple did not have the infrastructure in place to host customers’ data.

“Unbeknownst to Plaintiffs and the putative class members, instead of storing class members’ data on Apple cloud servers and facilities, Apple actually stored users’ data on cloud facilities owned and operated by other entities, like Amazon, Microsoft or Google—all undisclosed to these class members who paid and entrusted Apple to store their data,” the Apple class action lawsuit maintains.

The plaintiffs claim that had Apple disclosed that it would not be storing their data, they would not have subscribed to the iCloud service, or they would not have agreed to pay as much as they did for Apple to host their personal information.

The Apple class action alleges that iCloud customers entrusted Apple with their data, which includes information like photographs, documents, and email content. 

In fact, the class action claims that Apple went to “great lengths” to assure customers that the company would be the one hosting their data, highlighting this information in their iCloud contract.

By telling iCloud customers that it would be hosting their data, Apple was able to charge a premium for this service, as users would be paying for the Apple brand to provide this service for them.

In addition, the Apple class action lawsuit states that other cloud services, such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, were charging less to their customers than Apple. Thus, the plaintiffs state that they were paying a premium for services they thought were being provided by Apple.

The plaintiffs claim that, “A key term of this iCloud agreement for U.S. subscribers, which sets forth the terms, duties and obligations, of Apple and the iCloud subscribers, is that Apple is the entity providing the iCloud cloud storage service for U.S. subscribers.”

Also, the Apple class action lawsuit notes that Apple knew that they were being misleading in their customer contracts in stating that their data was being stored by Apple, and by not saying so for their customers in China. In China user contracts, Apple states that their customers’ data will be stored by a third party provider.

The plaintiffs allege that Apple pays Amazon and Microsoft around half a million dollars per year to store Apple’s iCloud customers’ data and personal information.

The Apple class action lawsuit claims that “Apple believes it is justified in doing so (and not disclosing as much) because Apple maintains that the iCloud user data stored on Amazon or Microsoft cloud facilities is first encrypted by Apple before being turned over to these entities and Apple itself stores the encryption keys.”

The plaintiffs have filed this lawsuit under violations of California’s False Advertising Law and California’s Unfair Competition Law.

The plaintiffs are represented by Roy A. Katriel of The Katriel Law Firm PC and Azra Mehdi of The Mehdi Firm PC.

The Apple iCloud Class Action Lawsuit is Williams, et al. v. Apple Inc., Case No. 5:19-cv-04700, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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