Cite as: 509 U. S. 209 (1993)
Syllabus
(c) The record in this case demonstrates that the scheme Liggett alleged, when judged against the market's realities, does not provide an adequate basis for a finding of liability. While a reasonable jury could conclude that Brown & Williamson envisioned or intended an anticompetitive course of events and that the price of its generics was below its costs for 18 months, the evidence is inadequate to show that in pursuing this scheme, it had a reasonable prospect of recovering its losses from below-cost pricing through slowing the growth of generics. No inference of recoupment is sustainable on this record, because no evidence suggests that Brown & Williamson was likely to obtain the power to raise the prices for generic cigarettes above a competitive level, which is an indispensable aspect of Liggett's own proffered theory. The output and price information does not indicate that oligopolistic price coordination in fact produced supracompetitive prices in the generic segment. Nor does the evidence about the market and Brown & Williamson's conduct indicate that the alleged scheme was likely to have brought about tacit coordination and oligopoly pricing in that segment. Pp. 230-243.
964 F. 2d 335, affirmed.
Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Scalia, Souter, and Thomas, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which White and Blackmun, JJ., joined, post, p. 243.
Phillip Areeda argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Charles Fried, Jean E. Sharpe, Josiah S. Murray III, James W. Dobbins, Garret G. Rasmussen, and C. Allen Foster.
Robert H. Bork argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Griffin B. Bell, Frederick M. Rowe, Michael L. Robinson, Abbott B. Lipsky, Jr., and Veronica G. Kayne.*
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for Atlantic Rich-field Co. by Ronald C. Redcay, Matthew T. Heartney, Otis Pratt Pear-sall, Philip H. Curtis, Francis X. McCormack, Donald A. Bright, and Edward E. Clark; and for ITT Corp. by John H. Schafer and Edwin A. Kilburn.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the Business Roundtable by Thomas B. Leary; and for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, Inc., by Terry Calvani, W. Todd Miller, and C. Douglas Floyd.
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