Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp.

From Conservapedia

In Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 509 U.S. 209, 220 (1993), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Robinson-Patman Act does not "ban all price differences charged to different purchasers of commodities of like grade and quality" (internal quotation marks omitted). Instead, the Act proscribes "price discrimination only to the extent that it threatens to injure competition," ibid.

The Court has established three categories of competitive injury that may give rise to a Robinson-Patman Act claim: primary-line, secondary-line, and tertiary-line. Primary-line cases entail conduct--most conspicuously, predatory pricing--that injures competition at the level of the discriminating seller and its direct competitors. See, e.g., id. at 220-222; see also Hovenkamp P 2301a, pp 4-6. Secondary-line cases involve price discrimination that injures competition among the discriminating seller's customers; cases in this category typically refer to "favored" and "disfavored" purchasers. See ibid.; Texaco Inc. v. Hasbrouck, 496 U.S. 543, 558, n. 15 (1990). Tertiary-line cases involve injury to competition at the level of the purchaser's customers. See Areeda P 601e, p 907.