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[08-22-08 15:43:12] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 546 U. S. 164 (2006)

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Opinion of the Court

not demonstrate a reasonable possibility of competitive in­ jury.” Ibid. We granted certiorari, 544 U. S. 903 (2005), to resolve this question: May a manufacturer be held liable for secondary­ line price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act in the absence of a showing that the manufacturer discrimi­ nated between dealers competing to resell its product to the same retail customer? Satisﬁed that the Court of Appeals erred in answering that question in the afﬁrmative, we re­ verse the Eighth Circuit’s judgment. II Section 2, “when originally enacted as part of the Clayton Act in 1914, was born of a desire by Congress to curb the use by ﬁnancially powerful corporations of localized price-cutting tactics which had gravely impaired the competitive position of other sellers.” FTC v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 363 U. S. 536, 543, and n. 6 (1960) (citing H. R. Rep. No. 627, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 8 (1914); S. Rep. No. 698, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 2–4 (1914)). Augmenting that provision in 1936 with the Robinson-Patman Act, Congress sought to target the per­ ceived harm to competition occasioned by powerful buyers, rather than sellers; speciﬁcally, Congress responded to the advent of large chainstores, enterprises with the clout to ob­ tain lower prices for goods than smaller buyers could de­ mand. See 14 H. Hovenkamp, Antitrust Law ¶ 2302, p. 11 (2d ed. 2006) (hereinafter Hovenkamp); P. Areeda & L. Kaplow, Antitrust Analysis ¶ 602, pp. 908–909 (5th ed. 1997) (hereinafter Areeda). The Act provides, in relevant part: “It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in com­ merce. . . to discriminate in price between different pur­ chasers of commodities of like grade and quality,. . . where the effect of such discrimination may be substan­ tially to lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce, or to injure, destroy, or prevent competition with any person who either grants or know­