Cite as: 521 U. S. 179 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
that the federal policies that lie behind RICO and the practicalities of RICO litigation make the selection of the 4-year statute of limitations for Clayton Act actions . . . the most appropriate limitations period for RICO actions." 483 U. S., at 156 (citing 15 U. S. C. § 15b).
The Court left open the accrual question. But it did not rule out the use of a Clayton Act analogy. As the Court has explained, Congress consciously patterned civil RICO after the Clayton Act. 483 U. S., at 150-151 (comparing 15 U. S. C. § 15(a) with 18 U. S. C. § 1964(c)); see also Sedima, S. P. R. L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U. S. 479, 489 (1985). And by the time civil RICO was enacted, the Clayton Act's accrual rule was well established. See Crummer Co. v. DuPont, 223 F. 2d 238, 247-248 (CA5), cert. denied, 350 U. S. 848 (1955); Foster & Kleiser Co. v. Special Site Sign Co., 85 F. 2d 742, 750-751 (CA9 1936), cert. denied, 299 U. S. 613 (1937); Blue-fields S. S. Co. v. United Fruit Co., 243 F. 1, 20 (CA3 1917).
The Clayton Act helps here because it makes clear precisely where, and how, the Third Circuit's rule goes too far. Antitrust law provides that, in the case of a "continuing violation," say, a price-fixing conspiracy that brings about a series of unlawfully high priced sales over a period of years, "each overt act that is part of the violation and that injures the plaintiff," e. g., each sale to the plaintiff, "starts the statutory period running again, regardless of the plaintiff's knowledge of the alleged illegality at much earlier times." 2 Areeda ¶ 338b, at 145 (footnote omitted); see also Zenith, supra, at 338; Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 392 U. S. 481, 502, n. 15 (1968); DXS, Inc. v. Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., 100 F. 3d 462, 467 (CA6 1996). But the commission of a separate new overt act generally does not permit the plaintiff to recover for the injury caused by old overt acts outside the limitations period. Zenith, supra, at 338; Pennsylvania Dental Assn. v. Medical Serv. Assn., 815 F. 2d 270, 278 (CA3), cert. denied, 484 U. S. 851 (1987); Hennegan v. Pacifico Creative Serv., Inc., 787 F. 2d 1299,
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