Cite as: 509 U. S. 209 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
may not be held liable because oligopoly pricing does not " 'provide an economically rational basis' " for recouping predatory losses. 964 F. 2d, at 342.
To the extent that the Court of Appeals may have held that the interdependent pricing of an oligopoly may never provide a means for achieving recoupment and so may not form the basis of a primary-line injury claim, we disagree. A predatory pricing scheme designed to preserve or create a stable oligopoly, if successful, can injure consumers in the same way, and to the same extent, as one designed to bring about a monopoly. However unlikely that possibility may be as a general matter, when the realities of the market and the record facts indicate that it has occurred and was likely to have succeeded, theory will not stand in the way of liability. See Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc., 504 U. S. 451, 466-467 (1992).
The Robinson-Patman Act, which amended § 2 of the original Clayton Act, suggests no exclusion from coverage when primary-line injury occurs in an oligopoly setting. Unlike the provisions of the Sherman Act, which speak only of various forms of express agreement and monopoly, see 15 U. S. C. §§ 1, 2, the Robinson-Patman Act is phrased in broader, disjunctive terms, prohibiting price discrimination "where the effect of such discrimination may be substantially to lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly," 15 U. S. C. § 13(a). For all the words of the Act to carry adequate meaning, competitive injury under the Act must extend beyond the monopoly setting. Cf. Reiter v. Sonotone Corp., 442 U. S. 330, 339 (1979) ("Canons of construction ordinarily suggest that terms connected by a disjunctive be given separate meanings, unless the context dictates otherwise"). The language referring to a substantial lessening of competition was part of the original Clayton Act § 2, see Act of Oct. 15, 1914, ch. 322, 38 Stat. 730, and the same phrasing appears in § 7 of that Act. In the § 7 context, it has long been settled that excessive concentration, and the oligopolistic price coordina-
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