A class motion lawsuit filed in San Jose, California federal courtroom on Friday alleges that Apple’s iCloud storage service retains necessary information solely inside iCloud, which may create an setting that stifles competitors and drives costs up for shoppers.

The proposed class consists of tens of thousands and thousands of consumers throughout the nation.

Apple affords consumers who buy its iPhone, iPad, and different {hardware} free iCloud storage for as much as 5 GB of knowledge. After a person hits that cap, they need to subscribe to iCloud+ from their Apple machine to maintain storing photographs, information, backups, and different options — for a month-to-month payment. In the US, 50 GB of storage on iCloud+ prices $0.99 per 30 days, all the best way as much as 12 TB of storage for $59.99 per 30 days.

In keeping with the lawsuit, despite the fact that competing cloud suppliers like Microsoft and Dropbox can host photographs and movies taken on Apple gadgets, Apple blocks them from accessing some restricted information containing app and settings information, which occur to be important if a person wants to revive their machine when it’s changed. So a buyer who makes use of Google’s cloud platform to retailer their movies would nonetheless have to make use of iCloud to retailer restricted information.

“As Apple is aware of, that is an unattractive choice,” the lawsuit asserts.

Associated: Apple Is Reportedly Engaged on Prototypes for at Least 2 Foldable iPhones

The lawsuit tries to thwart any try by Apple to elucidate that it retains sure information restricted on the premise of safety by declaring that Apple makes use of infrastructure from different firms to host iCloud information. For context, iCloud seems to implement related safety measures to Google Drive, and Apple’s iCloud storage tiers are priced equally to the competitors. In the meantime, 2 TB of iCloud storage goes for $9.99, the identical value that Dropbox and Google cost.

The lawsuit pointed to Apple’s 80% revenue margins for iCloud, which stand 36% increased than the corporate’s general margins, and alleged that “Apple’s restraints will be coherently defined solely as an try to stifle competitors.” Apple’s iCloud produced “virtually pure revenue” for the corporate, and was “undisciplined by competitors,” based on the lawsuit.

Associated: Apple Reportedly Instructed Dozens of Workers They Should Relocate or Be Terminated

Apple’s companies enterprise, which incorporates subscriptions like iCloud, hit a report excessive final yr and continues to develop. Apple introduced in February that it earned $119.6 billion final quarter, up 2% yr over yr.

“Apple is reporting income development for the December quarter fueled by iPhone gross sales, and an all-time income report in Providers,” Tim Prepare dinner, Apple’s CEO, acknowledged on the time.