The Supreme Court has given its blessing to joint ventures and thrown out a challenge alleging that they were a cover for price-fixing, reports Bloomberg. The case involved a challenge to a joint venture between Shell and Chevron to refine and sell gasoline.

Of course, if the case had gone ahead, many large companies had feared their joint venture deals would also be put through the litigation wringer. Coca-Cola, Verizon and Microsoft were just some of the big names that argued the court should kill the case.

Service station owners had sued alleging that the deal was merely a pretext to jack up wholesale prices. “As a single entity, a joint venture, like any other firm, must have the discretion to determine the prices of the products that it sells,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the unanimous court.

The ruling means a joint venture will be treated like a single company that can act to price its product as any other entity can.