I may be missing your point. It sounds to me like this argument could invalidate any antitrust case. "No, it's not illegal for us to collude on the price of widgets, because we're cooperating to sell widgets instead of competing with each other."
To further support your argument, I'd think that when the business signed up to add data to the system, they had to sign a contract that said something to the effect that they'd add it in an honest and timely manner.
In other words, whether or not they were cooperating or competing, they were probably in breach of contract.
