Cite as: 504 U. S. 451 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
needed to repair Kodak machines turns only on breakdown rates, and those rates should be the same whether Kodak or ISO's perform the repair. More importantly, the justification fails to explain respondents' evidence that Kodak forced OEM's, equipment owners, and parts brokers not to sell parts to ISO's, actions that would have no effect on Kodak's inventory costs.
Nor does Kodak's final justification entitle it to summary judgment on respondents' § 2 claim. Kodak claims that its policies prevent ISO's from "exploit[ing] the investment Kodak has made in product development, manufacturing and equipment sales in order to take away Kodak's service revenues." Brief for Petitioner 7-8. Kodak does not dispute that respondents invest substantially in the service market, with training of repair workers and investment in parts inventory. Instead, according to Kodak, the ISO's are free-riding because they have failed to enter the equipment and parts markets. This understanding of free-riding has no support in our case law.33 To the contrary, as the Court of Appeals noted, one of the evils proscribed by the antitrust laws is the creation of entry barriers to potential competitors by requiring them to enter two markets simultaneously. Jefferson Parish, 466 U. S., at 14; Fortner, 394 U. S., at 509.
None of Kodak's asserted business justifications, then, are sufficient to prove that Kodak is "entitled to a judgment as
33 Kodak claims that both Continental T. V. and Monsanto support its free-rider argument. Neither is applicable. In both Continental T. V., 433 U. S., at 55, and Monsanto, 465 U. S., at 762-763, the Court accepted free-riding as a justification because without restrictions a manufacturer would not be able to induce competent and aggressive retailers to make the kind of investment of capital and labor necessary to distribute the product. In Continental T. V. the relevant market level was retail sale of televisions and in Monsanto retail sales of herbicides. Some retailers were investing in those markets; others were not, relying, instead, on the investment of the other retailers. To be applicable to this case, the ISO's would have to be relying on Kodak's investment in the service market; that, however, is not Kodak's argument.
485
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