American Tobacco Co. v. United States
United States Supreme Court
328 U.S. 781 (1946)
Relevant factsFree
The three dominant cigarette companies (defendants), controlling most of the national market, sold to jobbers at identical prices and repeatedly raised their prices in near-simultaneous lockstep, including a price increase during a period of historically low tobacco costs with no apparent economic justification; the government (plaintiff) obtained convictions for conspiracy to monopolize under the Sherman Act.
IssueFree
Whether, to prove a conspiracy to monopolize, the United States government must establish conscious parallel conduct plus other circumstantial factors that justify an inference of agreement.