Apple is heading up to another class-action antitrust lawsuit, this time with the company being accused of monopolizing its iCloud storage services.
The lawsuit alleges the tech giant of "rigging the competitive playing field" for cloud services by limiting the platform to certain iPhone and iPad devices only, according to Bloomberg Law.
Apple supposedly controls 70% of the cloud storage market, allowing the company to mark up its iCloud prices "to the point where the service is generating almost pure profit."
Apple Limits Customer's Options for Cloud Services, Lawsuit Claims
As such, Apple, "undisciplined by competition," can limit the free 5GB storage on the cloud storage knowing that customers do have not much choice if they want to back up files from their Apple devices.
The lawsuit also brought up Apple blocking its services from being accessed from other cloud services that it becomes an "unattractive option" to handle multiple cloud accounts.
The complaint, representing tens of millions of iCloud users, was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on March 1, Friday.
Apple Enters 2024 Facing More Lawsuits
The antitrust lawsuit on iCloud is only the latest complaint filed against the tech giant as legislations aim to crack down on the tech giant's monopoly over its customers.
Just a month earlier, Apple has been set to appear at another hearing over its monopoly on its exclusive Messaging app.
This is in addition to the European Union putting pressure on one of the companies it labeled as "gatekeepers" to allow competitors to freely enter the market.
Apple's hold on its customers has been long criticized as the company freely spikes up its prices knowing that most of its users will remain, thanks to what is often called a "requirements tie."
So far, the tech giant has been ordered to comply with new standards for its hardware. Its software operations, however, have yet to feel an impact.
