F. Hoffmann-la Roche LTD, et al. v. Empagran S.a. et al. (542 U.S. 155)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 14, 2004 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 542 U.S. 155 · 124 S. Ct. 2359
- Decided
- June 14, 2004
- Term
- October Term 2003
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. The Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act of 1982 (FTAIA) excludes from the Sherman Act’s reach much anti-competitive conduct that causes only foreign injury. It does so by setting forth a general rule stating that the Sherman Act “shall not apply to conduct involving trade or commerce ... with foreign nations'.” 96 Stat. 1246,15 U. S. C. § 6a. It then creates exceptions to the general rule, applicable where (roughly speaking) that conduct significantly harms imports, domestic commerce, or American exporters. We here focus upon anticompetitive price-fixing activity that is in significant part foreign, that causes some domestic antitrust injury, and that independently causes separate foreign injury. We ask two questions about the price-fixing conduct and the foreign injury that it causes. First, does that conduct fall within the FTAIA’s general rule excluding the Sherman Act’s application? That is to say, does the price-fixing activity constitute “conduct involving trade or commerce . . . with foreign nations”? We conclude that it does. Second, we ask whether the conduct nonetheless falls within a domestic-injury exception to the general rule, an exception that applies (and makes the Sherman Act nonetheless applicable) where the conduct (1) has a “direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect” on domestic commerce,…
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