Washington — The US Supreme Court on Monday gave the go-ahead for a lawsuit by consumers accusing Apple of monopolising the market for iPhone software applications and forcing them to overpay, rejecting the company’s bid to escape claims that its practices violate federal antitrust law.
The dispute hinged in part on how the justices would apply a decision the court made in 1977 to the claims against Apple. In that case, the court limited damages for anti-competitive conduct to those directly overcharged rather than indirect victims who paid an overcharge passed on by others. Dissenting from the decision, conservative justice Neil Gorsuch, said the decision is “not how antitrust law is supposed to work” because it gives a green light to the exact type of case that the court had previously prohibited. Gorsuch also was appointed by Trump.