Cite as: 509 U. S. 209 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
sushita Elec. Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U. S. 574, 585, n. 8 (1986); Utah Pie, 386 U. S., at 698, 701, 702-703, n. 14; In re E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 96 F. T. C. 653, 749 (1980). Cf. United States v. National Dairy Products Corp., 372 U. S. 29 (1963) (holding that below-cost prices may constitute "unreasonably low" prices for purposes of § 3 of the Robinson-Patman Act, 15 U. S. C. § 13a). Although Cargill and Matsushita reserved as a formal matter the question " 'whether recovery should ever be available . . . when the pricing in question is above some measure of incremental cost,' " Cargill, supra, at 117-118, n. 12 (quoting Matsushita, supra, at 585, n. 9), the reasoning in both opinions suggests that only below-cost prices should suffice, and we have rejected elsewhere the notion that above-cost prices that are below general market levels or the costs of a firm's competitors inflict injury to competition cognizable under the antitrust laws. See Atlantic Richfield Co. v. USA Petroleum Co., 495 U. S. 328, 340 (1990). "Low prices benefit consumers regardless of how those prices are set, and so long as they are above predatory levels, they do not threaten competition. . . . We have adhered to this principle regardless of the type of antitrust claim involved." Ibid. As a general rule, the exclusionary effect of prices above a relevant measure of cost either reflects the lower cost structure of the alleged predator, and so represents competition on the merits, or is beyond the practical ability of a judicial tribunal to control without courting intolerable risks of chilling legitimate price cutting. See Areeda & Hovenkamp ¶¶ 714.2, 714.3. "To hold that the antitrust laws protect competitors from the loss of profits due to such price competition would, in effect, render illegal any decision by a firm to cut prices in order to increase market share. The antitrust laws require no such perverse result." Cargill, supra, at 116.
Even in an oligopolistic market, when a firm drops its prices to a competitive level to demonstrate to a maverick the unprofitability of straying from the group, it would be
223
Page: Index Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007