In Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986 (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with provisions of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act under which the Environmental Protection Agency could consider the data (including trade secrets) submitted by a prior pesticide applicant in evaluating a subsequent application, so long as the second applicant paid just compensation for the data.
The Court recognized that the "most direct beneficiaries" of these provisions were the subsequent applicants, id., at 1014, but the Court nevertheless upheld the statute under Berman v. Parker and Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff.
The Court found sufficient Congress' belief that sparing applicants the cost of time-consuming research eliminated a significant barrier to entry in the pesticide market and thereby enhanced competition (467 U.S. at 1015).
Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the nearly unanimous opinion for the Court, with only Justice Sandra Day O'Connor filing a partial dissent. Justice Byron White did not participate in the decision.