US court denies Apple’s request to dismiss antitrust case concerning iCloud

A California district court on Monday denied a request by Apple to throw out a class action lawsuit that alleges the iPhone maker violates competition laws by forcing users of its devices to back up their critical files and device settings on its cloud storage service, iCloud.

The complaint also accuses Apple of not allowing third-party cloud services to access certain files, and preventing them from offering a “full-service” storage that competes with iCloud.

U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee had previously dismissed the case, saying the plaintiffs did not sufficiently state a claim. The plaintiffs then filed a second amended complaint earlier this year, and the judge found the new arguments sufficient to deny Apple’s request to dismiss the case.

The plaintiffs claim that Apple holds a monopoly in the cloud-based storage market for iPhones, both in terms of revenue and user numbers.

For context, Apple lets users of its devices back up data like photos, videos, and other documents from their devices to any cloud storage service of their choice, but users can’t backup devices’ core data to these services, nor restore them.

In its motion to dismiss, Apple defended its decision to limit third-party cloud apps from accessing core data, including app data and device settings, citing security reasons.

“That design decision was and always has been a feature grounded in security and privacy considerations, given the sensitivity of the data required to restore one’s Apple device,” the company wrote.

Apple did not immediately return a request for comment.