Cassidy Law
MONTH-IN-BRIEF (Dec 2024)
Antitrust Law
Two Courts Block Kroger-Albertsons Merger
By Barbara Sicalides and Julian Weiss, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Within hours of each other on December 10, an Oregon federal district court followed by a Washington state court enjoined the $24.6 billion merger of the Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains. Both courts held the enforcement agencies established their prima facie case that the Kroger/Albertsons merger would substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in the submarket limited to traditional grocery stores.
The Oregon court adopted the controversial 2023 Merger Guidelines’ market concentration presumption and largely accepted the arguments of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its expert for a narrow grocery market. In a loss for the FTC, the Oregon court declined to find that the proposed transaction was likely to substantially harm competition in the labor market alleged.
