Reopening the issue of how manufacturers may treat third party maintenance companies, the US Supreme Court ruled against Eastman Kodak Co on a six to three vote, affirming a federal appeals court ruling reinstating an antitrust lawsuit filed against Kodak in 1987 by 18 independent companies that repair Kodak copiers and printers: the 18 charged that Kodak violated federal antitrust law by refusing to sell replacement parts to owners of Kodak equipment unless they agreed not to do business with independent repair and service companies; Kodak contended that it doesn’t have sufficient control over the market for copiers and microfilm printers to be able to engage in anticompetitive practices that inflate the price of repair services; briefs in support of Kodak were filed by the Computer & Business Equipment Manufacturers Association and a number of manufacturers, including Unisys Corp, Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Prime Computer Inc and Wang Laboratories Inc.
