The Anti-monopoly Backlash Reaches the Supreme Court
In a 5–4 decision, the justices decided not to stand in the way of reining in Big Tech.
On Monday, the Supreme Court stymied an effort by Apple to protect its monopoly over sales of iPhone apps. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s decision in Apple v. Pepper turned on an arcane bit of antitrust law, and it provided the first small hope that the antitrust establishment may finally turn against Big Tech. But the odds remain formidable.
The story begins during an almost unimaginably remote time in the American past—when the internet had not yet been invented, and antitrust law was still taken seriously. It was 1968, and the Supreme Court between Hanover Shoe, a manufacturer, and the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, from which it had leased equipment. Hanover Shoe sought damages on the grounds that United
