Yeah this, at first view anyway, appears to be classic collusion. Just b/c they do so under the guise of settlement...it is still plain and simple 2 separate/independent economic actors making an agreement that unreasonably restricts trade. Absent the lawsuit nobody would even question this. While the public policy reasons for encouraging settlement agreements are important, they're no where near cutting the mustard when bumping up against very basic antitrust law...competition assumes and demands independent decision making this in inherent in our way and not just culturally it's literally the law here...can't do it...