Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1454_5h26.pdf
Page Number: 32

8 

OHIO v. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

The District Court added that it found no offsetting pro-
competitive benefit to shoppers.  Id., at 225–238.  Indeed, 
it found no offsetting benefit of any kind.  See ibid. 

American  Express  appealed,  and  the  U. S.  Court  of
Appeals for the Second Circuit held in its favor.  838 F. 3d 
179  (2016).  The  Court  of  Appeals  did  not  reject  any  fact 
found  by  the  District  Court  as  “clearly  erroneous.”    See 
Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 52(a)(6).  Rather, it concluded that the 
District  Court  had  erred  in  step  1  of  its  rule-of-reason 
analysis by failing to account for what the Second Circuit 
called  the  credit-card  business’s  “two-sided  market”  (or 
“two-sided platform”).  838 F. 3d, at 185–186, 196–200. 

III 

The  majority,  like  the  Court  of  Appeals,  reaches  only 
step  1  in  its  “rule  of  reason”  analysis.  Ante,  at  10.  To 
repeat,  that  step  consists  of  determining  whether  the
challenged  “nondiscrimination  provisions”  have  had,  or
are  likely  to  have,  anticompetitive  effects.    See  Indiana 
Federation  of  Dentists,  476  U. S.,  at  459.    Do  those  provi­
sions tend to impede competition?  And if so, does Ameri­
can  Express,  which  imposed  that  restraint  as  a  condition 
of doing business with its merchant customers, have suffi­
cient  economic  or  commercial  power  for  the  provision  to 
make a negative difference?  See id., at 460–461. 

A 
Here the District Court found that the challenged provi­
sions  have  had  significant  anticompetitive  effects.    In 
particular,  it  found  that  the  provisions  have  limited  or 
prevented  price  competition  among  credit-card  firms  for
the  business  of  merchants.    88  F. Supp. 3d,  at  209.    That 
conclusion  makes  sense:  In  the  provisions,  American 
Express required the merchants to agree not to encourage 
customers  to  use  American  Express’  competitors’  credit 
cards, even cards from those competitors, such as Discover,