Brooke Group LTD. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (509 U.S. 209)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 21, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 509 U.S. 209 · 113 S. Ct. 2578
- Decided
- June 21, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. This case stems from a market struggle that erupted in the domestic cigarette industry in the mid-1980’s. Petitioner Brooke Group Ltd., whom we, like the parties to the case, refer to as Liggett because of its former corporate name, charges that to counter its innovative development of generic cigarettes, respondent Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation introduced its own line of generic cigarettes in an unlawful effort to stifle price competition in the economy segment of the national cigarette market. Liggett contends that Brown & Williamson cut prices on generic cigarettes below cost and offered discriminatory volume rebates to wholesalers to force Liggett to raise its own generic cigarette prices and introduce oligopoly pricing in the economy segment. We hold that Brown & Williamson is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. I In 1980, Liggett pioneered the development of the economy segment of the national cigarette market by introducing a line of “black and white” generic cigarettes. The economy segment of the market, sometimes called the generic segment, is characterized by its bargain prices and comprises a variety of different products: black and whites, which are true generics sold in plain white packages with simple black lettering describing their contents; private label generics, which carry the trade dress of…
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