A new class-action lawsuit filed against Apple is accusing the tech giant of misrepresenting how much storage would be occupied by the iOS 8 update.
On Tuesday, a complaint filed in a California court took aim at Apple after it was revealed that the actual amount of space the iOS 8 update occupied was larger than the capacity represented by the company.
The plaintiffs, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, claimed that no “reasonable consumer” would have agreed to have so much space occupied on their device for the update.
For all Apple devices, the update occupied nearly 20 percent of the devices’ storage capacity.
For the iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air and iPad, the update took up more than 20 percent of the user’s available storage.
The plaintiffs estimated that each gigabyte of capacity removed from the devices is the equivalent of as many as 500 high-resolution pictures.
The lawsuit also claims that Apple is limiting storage capacity for the sole purpose of pressuring consumers to purchase iCloud storage upgrades.
“To compound the harm to consumers, after Defendant [Apple] provides materially less than the advertised capacity on the Devices, Defendant aggressively markets a monthly-fee-based storage system called iCloud,” the lawsuit reads. “Using these sharp business tactics, Defendant gives less storage capacity than advertised, only to offer to sell that capacity in a desperate moment, e.g., when a consumer is trying to record or take photos at a child or grandchild’s recital, basketball game or wedding.”
Both of the plaintiffs own several Apple devices, including new iPhones and iPads.
In addition to allegedly misrepresenting the amount of space the iOS 8 update would occupy, the plaintiffs also found issue with the fact that none of the Apple devices actually came with the amount of promoted usable storage.
For example, the 16-gigabyte iPhone does not actually come with 16 gigabytes of usable storage due to preloaded apps and software.
The lawsuit says Apple is in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act.
The plaintiffs are asking for the court to force Apple to “engage in a corrective notice campaign” and actually pay restitution to consumers who were impacted by the alleged misrepresentation.