Pfizer Inc. v. Government of India

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this case we are asked to decide whether a foreign nation is entitled to sue in our courts for treble damages under the antitrust laws. The respondents are the Government of India, the Imperial Government of Iran, and the Republic of the Philippines. They brought separate actions in Federal District Courts against the petitioners, six pharmaceutical manufacturing companies. The actions were later consolidated for pretrial purposes in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.1 The complaints alleged that the petitioners had conspired to restrain and monopolize interstate and foreign trade in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of broad spectrum antibiotics, in violation of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, ch. 647, 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 16 U. S. C. §§ 1, 2. Among the practices the petitioners allegedly engaged in were price fixing, market division, and fraud upon the United States Patent Office.2 India and Iran each alleged that it was a “sovereign foreign state with whom the United States of America maintains diplomatic relations”; the Philippines alleged that it was a “sovereign and independent government.” Each respondent claimed that as a purchaser of antibiotics it had been damaged in its business or property by the alleged antitrust violations and sought treble damages under § 4 of the Clayton Act, 38 Stat. 731, 15 U. S. C. § 15, on its own behalf and on behalf of several classes of foreign purchasers of antibiotics.3

The petitioners asserted as an affirmative defense to the complaints that the respondents as foreign nations were not “persons” entitled to sue for treble damages under § 4. In response to pretrial motions4 the District Court held that the respondents were “persons” and refused to dismiss the actions.5 The trial court certified the question for appeal pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1292 (b).6 The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed, 550 P. 2d 396, and adhered to its decision upon rehearing en banc.7 Id., at 400. We granted certiorari to resolve an important and novel question in the administration of the antitrust laws. 430 U. S. 964.

I

As the Court of Appeals observed, this case “turns on the interpretation of the statute.” 550 F. 2d, at 397. A treble-damages remedy for persons injured by antitrust violations was first provided in § 7 of the Sherman Act, and was re-enacted in 1914 without substantial change as § 4 of the Clayton Act.8 Section 4 provides:

“[A]ny person who shall be injured in his business or property by reason of anything forbidden in the antitrust laws may sue therefor in any district court of the United States in the district in which the defendant resides or is found or has an agent, without respect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover threefold the damages by him sustained, and the cost of suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.”

Thus, whether a foreign nation is entitled to sue for treble damages depends upon whether it is a “person” as that word is used in § 4. There is no statutory provision or legislative history that provides a clear answer; it seems apparent that the question was never considered at the time the Sherman and Clayton Acts were enacted.9

The Court has previously noted the broad scope of the remedies provided by the antitrust laws. “The Act is comprehensive in its terms and coverage, protecting all who are made victims of the forbidden practices by whomever they may be perpetrated.” Mandeville Island Farms, Inc. v. American Crystal Sugar Co., 334 U. S. 219, 236; cf. Perma Life Mufflers, Inc. v. International Parts Corp., 392 U. S. 134, 138-139. And the legislative history of the Sherman Act demonstrates that Congress used the phrase “any person” intending it to have its naturally broad and inclusive meaning. There was no mention in the floor debates of any more restrictive definition. Indeed, during the course of those debates the word “person” was used interchangeably with other terms even broader in connotation. For example, Senator Sherman said that the treble-damages remedy was being given to “any party,” and Senator Edmunds, one of the principal draftsmen of the final bill,10 said that it established “the right of anybody to sue who chooses to sue.” 21 Cong. Rec. 2569, 3148 (1890).

In light of the law’s expansive remedial purpose, the Court has not taken a technical or semantic approach in determining who is a “person” entitled to sue for treble damages. Instead, it has said that “[t]he purpose, the subject matter, the context, the legislative history, and the executive interpretation of the statute are aids to construction which may indicate” the proper scope of the law. United States v. Cooper Corp., 312 U. S. 600, 605.

II

The respondents in this case possess two attributes that could arguably exclude them from the scope of the sweeping phrase “any person.” They are foreign, and they are sovereign nations.

A

As to the first of these attributes, the petitioners argue that, in light of statements made during the debates on the Sherman Act and the general protectionist and chauvinistic attitude evidenced by the same Congress in debating contemporaneous tariff bills, it should be inferred that the Act was intended to protect only American consumers. Yet it is clear that a foreign corporation is entitled to sue for treble damages, since the definition of “person” contained in the Sherman and Clayton Acts explicitly includes “corporations and associations existing under or authorized by . .. . the laws of any foreign country.” See n. 9, supra. Moreover, the antitrust laws extend to trade “with foreign nations” as well as among the several States of the Union. 15 U. S. C. §§ 1, 2.11 Clearly, therefore, Congress did not intend to make the treble-damages remedy available only to consumers in our own country.12

In addition, the petitioners’ argument confuses the ultimate purposes of the antitrust laws with the question of who can invoke their remedies. The fact that Congress’ foremost concern in passing the antitrust laws was the protection of Americans does not mean that it intended to deny foreigners a remedy when they are injured by antitrust violations. Treble-damages suits by foreigners who have been victimized by antitrust violations clearly may contribute to the protection of American consumers.

The Court has noted that § 4 has two purposes: to deter violators and deprive them of “ 'the fruits of their illegality,’ ” and “to compensate victims of antitrust violations for their injuries.” Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, 431 U. S. 720, 746; Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 429 U. S. 477, 485-486; Perma Life Mufflers, Inc. v. International Parts Corp., supra, at 139. To deny a foreign plaintiff injured by an antitrust violation the right to sue would defeat these purposes. It would permit a price fixer or a monopolist to escape full liability for his illegal actions and would deny compensation to certain of his victims, merely because he happens to deal with foreign customers.

Moreover, an exclusion of all foreign plaintiffs would lessen the deterrent effect of treble damages. The conspiracy alleged by the respondents in this case operated domestically as well as internationally.13 If foreign plaintiffs were not permitted to seek a remedy for their antitrust injuries, persons doing business both in this country and abroad might be tempted to enter into anticompetitive conspiracies affecting American consumers in the expectation that the illegal profits they could safely extort abroad would offset any liability to plaintiffs at home. If, on the other hand, potential antitrust violators must take into account the full costs of their conduct, American consumers are benefited by the maximum deterrent effect of treble damages upon all potential violators.14

B

The second distinguishing characteristic of these respondents is that they are sovereign nations. The petitioners contend that the word “person” was clearly understood by Congress when it passed the Sherman Act to exclude sovereign governments. The word “person,” however, is not a term of art with a fixed meaning wherever it is used, nor was it in 1890 when the Sherman. Act was passed.15 Cf. Towne v. Eisner, 245 U. S. *316418, 425. Indeed, this Court has expressly noted that use of the word “person” in the Sherman and Clayton Acts did not create a “hard and fast rule of exclusion” of governmental bodies. United States v. Cooper Corp., 312 U. S., at 604-605.

On the two previous occasions that the Court has considered whether a sovereign government is a “person” under the antitrust laws, the mechanical rule urged by the petitioners has been rejected.16 In United States v. Cooper Corp., the United States sought to maintain a treble-damages action under § 7 of the Sherman Act for injury to its business or property. The Court considered the question whether the United States was a “person” entitled to sue for treble damages as one to be decided not “by a strict construction of the words of the Act, nor by the application of artificial canons of construction,” but by analyzing the language of the statute “in the light, not only of the policy intended to be served by the enactment, but, as well, by all other available aids to construction.” Id., at 605. The Court noted that the Sherman Act provides several separate and distinct remedies: criminal prosecutions, injunctions, and seizure of property by the United States on the one hand, and suits for treble damages “granted to redress private injury” on the other. Id., at 607-608. Statements made during the congressional debates on the Sherman and Clayton Acts provided further evidence that Congress affirmatively intended to exclude the United States from the treble-damages remedy. Id., at 611-612. Thus, the Court found that the United - States was not a “person” entitled to bring suit for treble damages.17

In Georgia v. Evans, 316 U. S. 159, decided the very next Term, the question was whether Georgia was entitled to sue for treble damages under § 7 of the Sherman Act. The Court of Appeals, believing that the Cooper case controlled, had held that a State, like the Federal Government, was not a “person.” This Court reversed, noting that Cooper did not hold “that the word 'person/ abstractly considered, could not include a governmental body.” 316 U. S., at 161. As in Cooper, the Court did not rest its decision upon a bare analysis of the word “person,” but relied instead upon the entire statutory context to hold that Georgia was entitled to sue. Unlike the United States, which “had chosen for itself three potent weapons for enforcing the Act,” 316 U. S., at 161, a State had been given no other remedies to enforce the prohibitions of the law. To deprive it also of a suit for damages “would deny all redress to a State, when mulcted by a violator of the Sherman Law, merely because it is a State.” Id., at 162-163. Although the legislative history of the Sherman Act did not indicate that Congress ever considered whether a State would be entitled to sue, the Court found no reason to believe that Congress had intended to deprive a State of the remedy made available to all other victims of antitrust violations.

It is clear that in Georgia, v. Evans the Court rejected the proposition that the word “person” as used in the antitrust laws excludes all sovereign states. And the reasoning of that case leads to the conclusion that a foreign nation, like a domestic State, is entitled to pursue the remedy of treble damages when it has been injured in its business or property by antitrust violations. When a foreign nation enters our commercial markets as a purchaser of goods or services, it can be victimized by anticompetitive practices just as surely as a private person or a domestic State. The antitrust laws provide no alternative remedies for foreign nations as they do for the United States.18 The words of Georgia v. Evans are thus equally applicable here:

“We can perceive no reason for believing that Congress wanted to deprive a [foreign nation], as purchaser of commodities shipped in [international] commerce, of the civil remedy of treble damages which is available to other purchasers who suffer through violation of the Act. .. .. . Nothing in the Act, its history, or its policy, could justify so restrictive a construction of the word 'person' in § .7 .... . Such a construction would deny all redress to a [foreign nation], when mulcted by a violator of the Sherman Law, merely because it is a [foreign nation].” 316 U. S., at 162-163.

Ill

The result we reach does not involve any novel concept of the jurisdiction of the federal courts. This Court has long recognized the rule that a foreign nation is generally entitled to prosecute any civil claim in the courts of the United States upon the same basis as a domestic corporation or individual might do. “To deny him this privilege would manifest a want of comity and friendly feeling.” The Sapphire, 11 Wall. 164, 167; Monaco v. Mississippi, 292 U. S. 313, 323 n. 2; Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U. S. 398, 408-409; see U. S. Const., Art. III, § 2, cl. 1.19 To allow a foreign sovereign to sue in our courts for treble damages to the same extent as any other person injured by air antitrust violation is thus no more than a specific application of a long-settled general rule. To exclude foreign nations from the protections of our antitrust laws would, on the other hand, create a conspicuous exception to this rule, air exception that could not be justified in the absence of clear legislative intent.

Finally, the result we reach does not require the Judiciary in any way to interfere in sensitive matters of foreign policy.20 It has long been established that only governments recognized by the United States and at peace with us are entitled to access to our courts, and that it is within the exclusive power of the Executive Branch to determine which nations are entitled to sue. Jones v. United States, 137 U. S. 202, 212; Guaranty Trust Co. v. United States, 304 U. S. 126, 137-138; Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, supra, at 408-412. Nothing we decide today qualifies this established rule of complete judicial deference to the Executive Branch.2121

We hold today only that a foreign nation otherwise entitled to sue in our courts is entitled to sue for treble damages under the antitrust laws to the same extent as any other plaintiff. Neither the fact that the respondents are foreign nor the fact that they are sovereign is reason to deny them the remedy of treble damages Congress afforded to “any person” victimized by violations of the antitrust laws.

Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is

Affirmed.