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Page Number: 34

10 

OHIO v. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

that  argument,  the  Government  pointed  out,  and  the
District  Court  had  held,  that  the  newspaper  dominated 
the market for the sales of newspapers to readers in New 
Orleans,  where  it  was  the  sole  morning  daily  newspaper. 
Ibid.    But  this  Court  reversed.    We  explained  that  “every 
newspaper  is  a  dual  trader  in  separate  though  interde­
pendent markets; it sells the paper’s news and advertising
content  to  its  readers;  in  effect  that  readership  is  in  turn
sold  to  the  buyers  of  advertising  space.”    Ibid.    We  then  
added: 

“This case concerns solely one of those markets.  The 
Publishing Company stands accused not of tying sales
to its readers but only to buyers of general and classi­
fied space in its papers.  For this reason, dominance in 
the advertising market, not in readership, must be de­
cisive  in  gauging  the  legality  of  the  Company’s  unit
plan.”  Ibid. 

Here, American Express stands accused not of limiting or 
harming competition for shopper-related card services, but 
only  of  merchant-related  card  services,  because  the  chal­
lenged  contract  provisions  appear  only  in  American  Ex­
press’ contracts with merchants.  That is why the District 
Court  was  correct  in  considering,  at  step  1,  simply
whether  the  agreement  had  diminished  competition  in 
merchant-related services. 

B 
The  District  Court  did  refer  to  market  definition,  and 

the majority does the same.  Ante, at 11–15.  And I recog­
nize  that  properly  defining  a  market  is  often  a  complex 
business.  Once  a  court  has  identified  the  good  or  service
directly  restrained,  as  Times-Picayune  Publishing  Co.
requires,  it  will  sometimes  add  to  the  relevant  market
what economists call “substitutes”: other goods or services 
that are reasonably substitutable for that good or service.