A prolonged effort to initiate a class action lawsuit against Apple regarding iCloud storage has been officially dismissed.
This week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the plaintiffs did not succeed in proving their case.
The lawsuit included several allegations about iCloud and Apple’s upgrade strategies. The plaintiffs claimed that Apple misleads consumers into believing they must purchase additional iCloud storage. They also accused Apple of engaging in unfair competition practices, breach of contract, fraud, among other things.
The main accusation was that Apple “deceives customers into paying for its iCloud data storage service by falsely asserting that users can decrease their storage and stay within iCloud’s free 5 GB storage plan.”
In a recent court document, noted by Law360, the Ninth Circuit dismissed these claims. A lower district court had already dismissed the lawsuit in May 2022, leading the plaintiffs to appeal to the Ninth Circuit. This week, the appeals court affirmed that the district court “correctly dismissed” the suit.
From the recent ruling:
The plaintiffs also failed to state a valid claim of misrepresentation. According to the allegations made in the third amended complaint, Apple did not promise to help consumers manage their data to remain under the 5 GB limit for free iCloud storage. Although Apple did state that users could decrease their iCloud storage, the plaintiffs did not demonstrate that it is “virtually impossible” for them to do so.
Regarding the plaintiffs’ claims of breach of contract:
The district court rightly dismissed the breach of contract claim. The plaintiffs contended that Apple’s Terms & Conditions and an email from Apple warning users as they near the free 5 GB limit include enforceable promises that users can reduce their data storage below 5 GB to avoid charges for iCloud or downgrade to the free plan from a paid service.
However, the statements the plaintiffs referenced do not contain enforceable promises and are simply informational. Even if the statements could be viewed as enforceable commitments, plaintiffs failed to provide details indicating that these commitments were violated. As mentioned earlier, plaintiffs have not convincingly argued that it is impossible to reduce data and downgrade to the free 5 GB plan.
The plaintiffs in this case were “given three chances to amend” their claims to rectify the issues identified by the district court. Ultimately, the case was dismissed when it became evident that the complaint could not be salvaged through amendments.
Apple, however, continues to face a separate class action lawsuit concerning the iCloud’s free 5GB tier and various limitations related to iPhone backups. This case is spearheaded by the Hagens Berman law firm, which is also known for leading multiple class action lawsuits against Apple, including the notable $560 million class action regarding Apple Books price-fixing.
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