Assume that Big Drug Company BDC was one of ten drug manufactures who produced and sold in the Cleveland area a drug that was found to cause cancer in women whose mothers had taken the drug while pregnant. Plaintiff cannot find out if the pills her mother took were actually manufactured by BDC, but she does know that BDC controlled 40 percent of the market for that drug in the Cleveland area when her mother was taking it. If a jury finds that plaintiff suffered 100,000 in damages, she will be able to collect 40,000 from BDC if her state follows the doctrine of ________________.

Market share is the fraction or percentage that will be taken of the total available market or the market segment that is being supplied by the company. The responsibility for market share or market share liability is a rule originating in the United States of America, regarding the proof of the causal link and the responsibility of a plurality of causes of the damage.

Under this rule, when it is probable that a plurality of manufacturers of a particular product have caused damage, but it cannot be known for sure who among them caused it to a specific victim, they all respond in proportion to their respective market share . Faced with the possibility of allowing victims to remain empty-handed and manufacturers do not respond at all, or to the fact that they all have to respond jointly, the responsibility for market share may constitute an intermediate route that ensures that the victim can obtain some compensation in proportion to the probability that the defendant caused the damage