Willkie Farr & Gallagher is advising Which? on a landmark £3 billion claim against Apple for breaching competition law.

The consumer choice company alleges that Apple effectively locked millions of its customers into the iCloud service at “rip-off prices”.

Around 40 million Apple users in the U.K. could be entitled to a payout, with individuals owed an average of over £70 depending on how long they have been paying for the service.

The claim, filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, states that Apple disregarded competition law by giving the iCloud storage service preferential treatment. Apple is said to have done this by not allowing customers to back up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider.

Customers must also pay when storage exceeds the 5GB limit. Which? argues that users are overcharged for the iCloud subscription.

Willkie’s team is being led by partners Boris Bronfentrinker and Elaine Whiteford. Leading competition law barristers Philip Woolfe KC and Jack Williams at Monckton Chambers have also been instructed. Litigation Capital Management (LCM) will fund the claim.

Anti-competition lawsuits, especially those of the class-action variety, have become increasingly popular in recent years, enabled by the opt-out collective action regime introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Bronfentrinker and Whiteford are now working on multiple such cases, including a claim targeting Amazon’s market practices.

Chief Executive of Which?, Anabel Hoult, said: “We believe Apple customers are owed nearly £3 billion as a result of the tech giant forcing its iCloud services on customers and cutting off competition from rival services.

“By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off U.K. consumers without facing repercussions. Taking this legal action means we can help consumers to get the redress that they are owed, deter similar behaviour in the future and create a better, more competitive market.”

In a statement, Apple said: "Apple believes in providing our customers with choices. Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage. In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible—whether it is to iCloud or another service. We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”