Apple App Store lawsuit can proceed, Supreme Court rules

In a ruling that threatens Apple’s lucrative App Store business, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a proposed class-action consumer lawsuit against the iPhone maker to proceed.

At issue was whether iPhone users had the right to sue the tech giant, which takes a 30 percent cut from tens of millions of app developers on its platform, over what they say is a monopolistic practice that drove up prices of apps. Other tech giants that have similar platforms, such as Google, have a stake in the outcome of the case.

Apple had argued that it was merely acting as an intermediary, and that the developers set the prices of the apps, so the four plaintiffs were not “direct purchasers” who could sue the company under a precedent set by the nation’s highest court decades ago.

The Supreme Court disagreed, as expected based on some justices’ questions during oral arguments in November. In an opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the court’s four liberal justices in a 5-4 decision, he said “if accepted, Apple’s theory would provide a roadmap for monopolistic retailers to structure transactions with manufacturers or suppliers so as to evade antitrust claims by consumers and thereby thwart effective antitrust enforcement.”

Apple has not returned a request for comment Monday.

This story will be updated.