Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp

In Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 594-95, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1360, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986), the Court examined under the light of Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 429 U.S. 477, 97 S.Ct. 690, 50 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977) a claim by American competitors that their Japanese counterparts agreed to fix prices for electronic equipment at low levels in the United States. According to the Court, to satisfy Brunswick 's antitrust injury requirement, respondents must show more than a conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws; they must show an injury to them resulting from the illegal conduct. Respondents charge petitioners with a whole host of conspiracies in restraint of trade. Except for the alleged conspiracy to monopolize the American market through predatory pricing, these alleged conspiracies could not have caused respondents to suffer an "anti-trust injury," because they actually tended to benefit respondents. Therefore, unless, in context, evidence of these other conspiracies raises a genuine issue concerning the existence of a predatory pricing conspiracy, that evidence cannot defeat petitioners' summary judgment motion. Id., 475 U.S. at 586, 106 S.Ct. at 1356.