The ruling helped tobacco stocks, since it removed the threat of many costly legal actions.

As yet they were not persuaded that he would risk any such costly action.

The government and historians consider the Black Line to have been an excessively costly action.

"Because of that we have had to take very costly actions to remediate problems after the fact, such as acid rain and global warming."

The disruptive and costly actions turned out to be excessive.

Thus, Hamilton reasoned, a "costly action" would be better spent in helping to raise their sisters, rather than reproducing themselves.

But if nothing else, they threaten potential hostile acquirers with costly and time-consuming legal action.

His rule suggests that a costly action should be performed if:

It was a costly action for both sides.

If a company wants to discontinue a relationship with an employee, it can be a very costly and unpopular action.