Steven Williams and Jiamie Chen of the Joseph Saveri Law Firm.
On May 13, 2019, the Supreme Court handed down its order in Apple Inc. v. Pepper, 587 U.S. ___ (2019), resolving once and for all widespread speculation as to a potential seachange in antitrust private enforcement.
The Court unambiguously reaffirmed its prior holdings in Hanover Shoe and Illinois Brick, and, by extension, the past four decades of antitrust enforcement jurisprudence that developed from that framework. In particular, the Court emphasized the brightness of the Illinois Brick bright-line test as well as its driving rationale—facilitating private antitrust enforcement.
