Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, No. 11-864; U.S. Supreme Court; opinion by Scalia, J.; dissents by Ginsburg and Breyer, JJ.; decided March 27, 2013. On certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Petitioners, Comcast Corporation and its subsidiaries, allegedly "cluster" their cable television operations within a particular region by swapping their systems outside the region for competitor systems inside the region. Respondents, named plaintiffs in this class-action antitrust suit, claim that they and other Comcast subscribers in the Philadelphia "cluster" are harmed because Comcast’s strategy lessens competition and leads to supracompetitive prices. They sought class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3), which requires that "questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members."
