WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, Brett Kavanaugh sided with liberal justices in a 5-4 decision that will allow Apple users to sue Apple for monopolistic pricing in their App Store.

There have been claims that Apple’s App Store is a monopoly and that they artificially inflate prices.
The anti trust law is now allowing customers to proceed with lawsuits for these claims, but only if they are direct purchasers of the App Store.

Apple doesn’t agree with this as they claim that they are only providing a place for developers to sell their products and set their prices.

Before the developers’ apps make it to the App Store, Apple has to review them for compatibility and they charge a 30% commission fee.

With that, the Supreme Court made its decision.

Kavanaugh stated, “iPhone owners purchase apps directly from the retailer, Apple,” and, “If the retailer’s unlawful monopolistic conduct caused a consumer to pay the retailer a higher-than-competitive price, the consumer is entitled to sue.”

Though Kavanaugh sided with the court’s liberal justices, there were still the remaining conservative justices who disagreed with the ruling.

They sided with Apple in the respect that the App Store is just a gateway for developers and they each set their own prices.

This issue originally started in 2011 when some iPhone users claimed that App Store prices would be lower in an open market.

Apple’s loss in this antitrust case could expose millions of dollars of damage within the company.
The same could happen for online marketplaces which are similar to Apple’s.