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Ninth Circuit:
Apple’s Cloud Storage Plan Isn’t Misleading
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action against Apple Inc. brought by a woman who, in subscribing to a plan under which she paid a monthly fee for 200 GB of data storage on a cloud, assumed she was buying space in addition to the 5 GB all users of iPhones and iPads receive free.
Plaintiff Lisa Bodenburg maintained that Apple was “shortchanging her by 5 GB” each month.
She pointed to an online description of three cloud-storage plans which says:
“When you sign up for iCloud. you automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you need more iCloud storage or want access to premium features, you can upgrade to iCloud+.”
Bodenburg opted for the middle-sized plan, “ICloud+ with 200GB storage/”
District Court Ruling
District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson of the Northern District of California, on May 8, 2024, dismissed with prejudice the suit brought by Lisa Bodenburg against the California-based technology giant, saying that the plaintiff’s subjective belief that she would be receiving 205 GB of storage was unreasonable.
Finding that a breach-of-contract claim had not been stated, Thompson said that Bodenburg paid for a plan offering 200 GB of storage and received that much space. Rejecting claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law, Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and False Advertising Law, she wrote:
“The interpretation that a free cloud storage plan providing 5GB would remain in place after upgrading to a paid plan providing more storage is insufficient to meet the reasonable consumer test, since the standard is objective.”
Ninth Circuit Opinion
Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. authored yesterday’s Ninth Circuit opinion expressing agreement with Thompson. He wrote:
“Bodenburg cannot state a claim for breach of contract because she cannot allege a cognizable contractual breach. As she concedes, her legal theory is premised on a single sentence in the Agreement: the statement that all accounts are ‘allocated 5GB of storage capacity’ for free and that users may purchase ‘[additional storage’ by upgrading to one of the three iCloud+ storage plans. Interpreted objectively, this language obligates Apple to provide iCloud+ subscribers with ‘incremental’ or ‘supplemental’ storage in addition to the amount that all accounts are already given….But, as the district court correctly reasoned, Apple fully complied with this obligation because, ‘[w]hen [Bodenburg] upgraded, she did receive more storage.’ Specifically, when Bodenburg upgraded to Apple’s “iCloud+ with 200GB storage” plan, she received 200 GB of storage—195 GB more than the 5 GB that she previously had. In this way, Bodenburg received exactly what Apple promised her.”
Finding no merit to Bodenburg’s claims under California consumer-protection statutes, Smith said:
“Bodenburg cannot plausibly prove that a reasonable consumer would be deceived by Apple’s statements.”
The case is Bodenburg v. Apple Inc., 24-3335.
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