U.S. Supreme Court’s business-friendly reputation takes a hit

Andrew Chung for Reuters:

The U.S. Supreme Court in its term that concludes this week was not quite as business friendly as it has been in recent years, with President Donald Trump’s appointee Brett Kavanaugh writing a pivotal one of the batch of rulings that defied corporate interests.
Overall, the court’s rulings helped the business community more than they hurt, a regular feature under conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. But despite a 5-4 conservative majority, the court also signaled during its 2018-2019 term that there are limits to what business can expect.
Kavanaugh, a conservative known for his pro-business rulings in his prior role as a federal appeals court judge, wrote the most high-profile business-related decision of the term. He joined the court’s four liberal justices in a 5-4 ruling in May that let a class action lawsuit proceed against Apple Inc in which consumers accused the technology company of violating antitrust law by monopolizing the market for iPhone applications through its App Store.
Apple had been backed by Trump’s administration in the case.

MacDailyNews Take: In Apple v. Pepper, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to an antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple of forcing consumers to overpay for iPhone software applications. They did not hold Apple liable on the merits of the lawsuit.
The amount by which Apple Inc. has driven down software prices across the board, on every major computing platform, makes this lawsuit laughable.
Basically, the U.S. Supreme Court simply opened the door for a flawed App Store lawsuit that Apple will likely win.