A federal judge in Oregon has officially blocked the proposed merger between grocery store chains Kroger and Albertson’s, in a decision that’s being celebrated by advocates for curbing grocery prices.
CNN reported Tuesday that had the merger been approved, it would have allowed the fifth and tenth largest retailers in the United States to form a behemoth corporation that activists say would have led to even higher food prices. Collectively, the companies already own various regional grocery chains across the country including Safeway, Vons, King Soopers, Fry’s, Harris Teeter and Fred Meyer, among others.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson of the District of Oregon (appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden) ruled that the merger would result in higher prices for Kroger and Albertson’s customers by eliminating competition between the two. She argued that supermarkets were “distinct from other grocery retailers” and are not direct competitors to other large companies like Amazon and Walmart.
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In the lawsuit it filed to block the merger, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argued that it would have “result[ed] in higher grocery prices for millions of Americans and lower wages and benefits for hundreds of thousands of grocery workers.” Outgoing FTC chair Lina Khan — who Biden could technically still appoint to another seven-year term before he leaves office — has been an outspoken anti-monopoly advocate, and has pursued antitrust action against tech companies like Amazon and Google.
Other activists have also celebrated Judge Nelson’s decision. Food & Water Watch senior food policy analyst Rebecca Wolf opined that had the merger gone through, it would have been detrimental for customers at large.
“Persistently high food prices are hitting Americans hard, and a Kroger-Albertsons mega-merger would have only made it worse,” Wolf stated.
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Click here to read CNN’s full report.
