County Hall has won its first round of an epic legal battle against tech-giant Apple, which it accuses of giving "misleading" information which resulted in its pension fund to lose $1m.
In what experts say is a significant victory, a Californian court has decided that the local authority's case against the $3 trillion firm can be considered a "class action".
Norfolk County Council has been embroiled in a legal fight with Apple for at least two years, accusing the firm's CEO Tim Cook of making "false and misleading" statements.
The local authority, which runs a Norfolk Pension Fund valued at £3.8bn, holds an undisclosed amount of shares in Apple.
The alleged statements were made during a call with analysts in 2018, when the Apple boss said that the firm was not facing sales pressure in China.
Just days later it was reported that the tech firm was reducing production of the new iPhone XR due to lower than expected demand and by January Mr Cook admitted the company would miss its profit forecasts by about £6bn.
By the following January its quarterly revenue forecast tumbled by up to $9bn, which he partly blamed on pressure on China's economy from US-China trade tensions.
The council has argued the Apple boss must have known in November 2018 the new iPhone was not selling as strongly as the firm had hoped.
In a 23-page decision, Judge Rogers said that while Mr Cook might not have known specifics about “troubling signs” in China that the company had begun seeing, it “strains credulity” he would have been in the dark about the trade tensions and their possible impact on Apple.
Apple has previously said there was no proof it misled investors.
Colin Hayes, from the legal firm Penningtons Manches Cooper said that the latest development was "potentially good for the council".
Being given the status of a class action lawsuit means that Norfolk County Council can act as a representative of any other shareholder in the same position as them.
As a result, this puts Apple at a "significantly higher risk if the claim is successful" and put the local authority in a much better position.
Although unable to talk specifically about this case, Mr Hayes explained that in many circumstances gaining a class action status would increase the incentive for Apple to resolve the lawsuit.
As well as this, gaining class action status could help the financial costs of the council in the legal fight as it can now split costs among the group of affected shareholders. It is not known how much the council has spent fighting the case so far.
Meanwhile, last month Apple became the first firm to hit a $3 trillion stock market value.
Update: Norfolk County Council has stated that the Norfolk taxpayer is not liable for the costs of this action.
How the two compare...the local authority vs the global behemoth
Apple
Worth: $3 trillion
Leader: Tim Cook, 61. FT Person of the Year in 2014. Net worth $1.5bn
Founded: 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne as a business partnership.
HQ: Nicknamed "the spaceship" and designed by Norman Foster, Apple HQ houses more than 12,000 employees on a four-storey circular building. 80pc of the 360 acres site consists of green space planted with drought-resistant trees and plans indigenous to the Cupertino area.
Norfolk County Council
Worth: Revenue budget for 2021-22 was £1.518bn.
Leader: Andrew Proctor, 74, Conservative councillor representing Blofield and Brundall division; can receive an allowance of up to £45,112
Founded: 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, which merged the
HQ: Built in 1961, the building on the edge of Norwich is currently undergoing repairs after falling masonry and a warning that there could have been deaths if work had not gone ahead.
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