130
Opinion of the Court
Deputy Solicitor General Wallace argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Waxman, Assistant Attorney General Klein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Melamed, Barbara McDowell, Catherine G. O'Sullivan, Mark S. Popofsky, and Debra A. Valentine.
Lawrence C. Brown argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was John H. Ring III.*
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we ask whether the antitrust rule that group boycotts are illegal per se as set forth in Klor's, Inc. v. Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc., 359 U. S. 207, 212 (1959), applies to a buyer's decision to buy from one seller rather than another, when that decision cannot be justified in terms of ordinary competitive objectives. We hold that the per se group boycott rule does not apply.
I
Before 1984 American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) supplied most of the Nation's telephone service and, through wholly owned subsidiaries such as Western Electric, it also supplied much of the Nation's telephone equipment. In 1984 an antitrust consent decree took AT&T out of the local telephone service business and left AT&T a long-distance telephone service provider, competing with such firms as MCI and Sprint. See M. Kellogg, J. Thorne, & P. Huber, Federal Telecommunications Law § 4.6, p. 221
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association by Stephen M. Shapiro, Roy T. Englert, Jr., Donald M. Falk, and Mark Slywynsky; for the Business Roundtable by Thomas B. Leary and Robert C. Weinbaum; for GTE Corporation by Christopher Landau, Paul T. Cappuccio, William P. Barr, and M. Edward Whelan III; and for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York by Richard M. Steuer.
Mark R. Patterson and Stephen F. Ross filed a brief for Law Professors as amici curiae urging affirmance.
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