Apple to fight court ruling it overcharged UK customers

Apple is seeking to overturn a £1.5bn court ruling that found the company had overcharged millions of UK customers for years in its App Store.

- Robert Booth UK technology editor

The iPhone maker has applied to the court of appeal to challenge a verdict that campaigners heralded as the start of a “tidal shift against big tech”.

It is one of several cases heading towards trial next year over the up to 30% commission - what campaigners call the “Apple tax” - on apps and in-app purchases, which many rely on for activities from fitness to dating.

The appeal would involve one of several class action suits against Apple and Google in which consumers, small businesses and entrepreneurs are demanding more than £6bn in combined compensation.

"It’s definitely a tipping point,” said Dr Rachael Kent, an academic at King’s College London, who won the £1.5bn case against Apple on behalf of 36 million UK consumers. “People are pushing back against the harms from digital worlds they have to be living in and through every day and the financial implications of that,” she said.

If Apple’s appeal fails, every person in the UK who made App Store purchases between 2015 and 2024 could be entitled to a payout.

In the suite of class action cases, Apple and Google are accused of overcharging British consumers and developers in their app stores and, in the case of Apple, of “trapping” and overcharging customers with its iCloud data storage service.