Supreme Court rejects American Airlines appeal over JetBlue deal

Investing.com -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL)’ appeal of a lower court decision that found its now-scrapped Northeast partnership with JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) violated federal antitrust law.

The justices declined to hear the appeal of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department that ended the proposed "Northeast Alliance," which would have allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue.

American Airlines had argued that the antitrust violation ruling wrongly showed hostility to business collaboration and contradicted approaches taken by other courts that require evidence of actual harm to consumers in the market as a whole, not just the customers of the collaborating companies.

The airline also claimed the ruling invalidated a joint venture that increased market-wide competition among all airlines and "threatens to wreak havoc on productive collaborations of all shapes and sizes."

The November ruling stemmed from a lawsuit the Justice Department filed in 2021 along with six states during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which made boosting airline competition a priority and aggressively enforced U.S. antitrust laws.

Despite the change in administrations, the Justice Department under Republican President Donald Trump has continued to defend the government’s victory, stating the 1st Circuit’s ruling upholding a judge’s decision to block the alliance was based on "uncontroversial antitrust principles."

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