A California district courtroom on Monday denied a request by Apple to throw out a category motion lawsuit that alleges the iPhone maker violates competitors legal guidelines by forcing customers of its units to again up their crucial information and system settings on its cloud storage service, iCloud.
The grievance additionally accuses Apple of not permitting third-party cloud providers to entry sure information, and stopping them from providing a “full-service” storage that competes with iCloud.
U.S. District Decide Eumi Lee had beforehand dismissed the case, saying the plaintiffs didn’t sufficiently state a declare. The plaintiffs then filed a second amended complaint earlier this year, and the decide discovered the brand new arguments enough to disclaim Apple’s request to dismiss the case.
The plaintiffs declare that Apple holds a monopoly within the cloud-based storage marketplace for iPhones, each when it comes to income and consumer numbers.
For context, Apple lets customers of its units again up information like photographs, movies, and different paperwork from their units to any cloud storage service of their selection, however customers can’t backup units’ core information to those providers, nor restore them.
In its motion to dismiss, Apple defended its choice to restrict third-party cloud apps from accessing core information, together with app information and system settings, citing safety causes.
“That design choice was and all the time has been a function grounded in safety and privateness concerns, given the sensitivity of the information required to revive one’s Apple system,” the corporate wrote.
Apple didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
