The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that a small group of iPhone users have the right to pursue a major antitrust lawsuit against Apple over its App Store. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote the majority decision, was joined by the court's four more liberal justices. President Trump's other Supreme Court appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote the dissent, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservatives Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. The decision could open Apple up to enormous future damages.
The iPhone users contend that Apple is using its role as sole marketplace for iPhone apps to charge higher prices than those apps would get in a free market, on the theory that the 30 percent commission Apple charges developers gets passed along to consumers, NPR explains. Kavanaugh stressed that the court was not taking any position on the merits of the lawsuit, but wrote that "ever since Congress overwhelmingly passed and President Benjamin Harrison signed the Sherman Act in 1890, 'protecting consumers from monopoly prices' has been 'the central concern of antitrust.'"
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