Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp.

Matsushita v. Zenith Radio Corp.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 12, 1985 Decided March 26, 1986
Full case name	Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp.
Citations	475 U.S. 574 (more) 106 S. Ct. 1348; 89 L. Ed. 2d 538
Holding
To survive a motion for a summary judgment, a plaintiff seeking damages for a violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act must present evidence "that tends to exclude the possibility" that the alleged conspirators acted independently, such that the inference of a conspiracy is reasonable in light of the competing inferences of independent action or collusive action that could not have harmed respondents.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Powell, joined by Burger, Marshall, Rehnquist, O'Connor
Dissent	White, joined by Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens
Laws applied
Sherman Antitrust Act, Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574 (1986), was an antitrust case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. It raised the standard for surviving summary judgment to unambiguous evidence that tends to exclude an innocent interpretation. Specifically, the issue was whether there was a horizontal "agreement" between Matsushita Electric and other Japanese television manufacturers. The Court held that the evidence must tend to exclude the possibility of independent action to be sufficient to survive summary judgment.

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 475

• Text of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574 (1986) is available from: CourtListener Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)