Apple has agreed to pay US residents $14.8 million to settle a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit primarily concerns the storage of user iCloud data on non-Apple servers. The class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in California in 2019, alleges that Apple violated the terms and conditions of its iCloud servers by storing user data on servers operated by Amazon, Google and Microsoft instead of its own.
Apple denies it violated a promise that iCloud data is “stored by Apple,” but agreed to pay the money to settle a class-action lawsuit.
According to the settlement’s website, the payout applies to any U.S. user who purchased an iCloud subscription between September 16, 2015, and January 31, 2016. Users don’t need to do anything to join the class that the settlement represents.
As long as the email used to purchase the iCloud subscription remains valid, users will be notified of the settlement, the settlement attorney said. Users who still have an active iCloud subscription — and a U.S. mailing address associated with it — will automatically receive the payout in the account they use to pay for the plan. Otherwise, the user will receive a check for payment.
It is unclear how much the class members will be paid out. Compensation will be distributed based on the storage tier the user has registered for during the above period.