Apple ‘Shortchanged’ Consumers on iCloud+ Storage, Says 9th Circuit Appellant

At issue in plaintiff-appellant Lisa Bodenburg’s appeal against Apple is language in Apple's “governing contract” for its iCloud+ service, which provides that all Apple device owners automatically are provided 5 GB of iCloud storage free of charge, said Bodenburg’s mediation questionnaire Monday (docket 24-3555) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (see 2405280007). Bodenburg’s appeal seeks to reverse the district court’s May 8 order granting Apple’s motion to dismiss her complaint with prejudice. Apple’s iCloud+ contract goes on to provide that additional storage is available for purchase, said the questionnaire. Bodenburg “therefore straightforwardly interpreted that contractual promise” to mean that Bodenburg, who purchased a paid iCloud+ subscription, would obtain the additional storage of that paid subscription tier in addition to the 5 GB of free storage that she, like all Apple device owners, was already being provided for free, it said. “Apple, on the other hand, interprets the agreement to mean that the paid subscription tier storage is the full extent of the storage provided” to a paying iCloud+ subscriber, it said. Apple “therefore admitted” that the paid storage is not accumulative to the 5 GB of free storage Bodenburg already had, said the questionnaire. “Given her interpretation of the plain words” of the iCloud+ contract and Apple's admission, Bodenburg alleges all putative class members were “shortchanged 5 GB of cloud storage” when they purchased an iCloud+ subscription, it said.