It’s interesting how the judges in Apple vs Epic stayed with Big Tech, same with Microsoft on the Blizzard acquisition.
Almost if the Judges are scared of Big Tech but the Jury composed of lay people see the monopoly for what it is.
My thought is that the judges are likely staying with the "letter of the law" which is what Big Tech (Big anything really) hires all of their lawyers to make sure that they technically stay within, while flagrantly violating the spirit of the law in a way that helps the business model.
The Jury is more prone to look at the spirit of the law.
The judges are following previous rulings and trying to apply them to what are likely novel situations that the law was never intended to cover because it no one foresaw it.
The courts are not how you fix this. The legislature is. Unfortunately that’s too broken to do anything.
I know this is my cynicism saying it will never happen, but when it comes to this kind of stuff it seems to guess correctly quite a lot.
Since it's legal in US to buy political influence (lobby) and since judges and prosecutors are politically appointed and since the said corporations have very large pockets...
To add on that media and public opinion also impacts your career as a justice and money can swing both media and public opinion.