The arbitration motion is worth watching independently of the antitrust question, and it is the part most coverage underplays.
If Collectors succeeds in compelling arbitration, the market-structure claim never gets heard in open court. No discovery, no public record of how an 80% share was assembled, no ruling anyone can cite. The competition question would not be answered — it would be moved somewhere nobody can read the answer.
Nothing here is proven. These are allegations in a proposed class action and an unruled motion, and it is worth being precise about that. But the outcome on 11 September determines whether the substantive question ever becomes public, which makes a procedural hearing more consequential than it looks.
For anyone holding slabs, nothing changes either way. Grades already issued are not affected by who owns the grader.
