Apple beats US appeal claiming it shortchanged customers on iCloud storage

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By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected claims by Apple customers that the iPhone maker gave them less iCloud data storage than they paid for when upgrading.

In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said reasonable consumers in the proposed class action would not have been misled by Apple’s promises about storage capacity in its iCloud+ plans.

The plaintiff Lisa Bodenburg said she paid $2.99 a month for 200 GB of storage, believing Apple would add it to the 5 GB that all iCloud customers receive, and was shortchanged because Apple gave her only 200 GB of total storage, not 205 GB.

Circuit Judge Milan Smith, however said Bodenburg “received exactly what Apple promised her” when the Cupertino, California-based company offered “incremental” or “supplemental” storage, on top of the 5 GB she got for free.

He cited dismissals of other cases based on “unreasonable assumptions,” including that Diet Dr. Pepper would aid in weight loss, and the net weight on a lip balm label failed to reveal that the dispenser’s design left some balm inaccessible.

“Apple’s statements are not false and deceptive merely because [they] may be unreasonably misunderstood by an insignificant and unrepresentative segment of consumers,” Smith wrote.

Lawyers for Bodenburg did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The decision upheld a May 2024 dismissal by U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco.

The case is Bodenburg v Apple Inc, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-3335.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New YorkEditing by Marguerita Choy)