September 04, 2024
Federal Trade Commision attorneys on Wednesday pressed Albertsons Cos. Inc. CEO Vivek Sankaran in Oregon federal court about why he had such dire predictions about the company's future without a merger with Kroger despite previous statements about how his company had been crushing the competition.
August 29, 2024
The Federal Trade Commission is sparring with Kroger over where, and when, to handle the grocery giant's constitutional counterattack to the FTC's merger challenge, with the agency teeing up a bid to move the company's Ohio federal court suit to Oregon, where it's defending the proposed Albertsons purchase.
August 26, 2024
Albertsons told an Oregon federal judge Monday that if the Federal Trade Commission is able to block a proposed merger with Kroger, it could lead to layoffs and shuttered stores, because a go-it-alone Albertsons doesn't have the wholesale buying power to compete with Walmart and Costco on prices.
August 23, 2024
The Federal Trade Commission's highly anticipated hearing to block Albertsons' planned $24.6 billion merger with Kroger kicks off Monday in a Portland, Oregon, courtroom in what attorneys say will be a pivotal test of the Biden administration's newly formalized merger policy.
August 22, 2024
The National Labor Relations Board used an amicus brief Wednesday to call out Kroger and Albertsons for their "mistaken" citation to labor law as a defense against Federal Trade Commission claims that the grocery giants' $25 billion megamerger threatens union bargaining leverage.
August 19, 2024
Kroger went on the offensive Monday, a week before Oregon federal court proceedings kick off in the Federal Trade Commission's challenge to its purchase of Albertsons, in a lawsuit going after the constitutionality of the agency's in-house court, also set to contest the merger.
August 19, 2024
The Federal Trade Commission accused executives from Albertsons of deleting text messages about the supermarket chain's planned megamerger with Kroger, saying the messages likely contained valuable internal views about the effects of the $25 billion deal.
August 14, 2024
Four Republican-led states defended Kroger's proposed $25 billion acquisition of Albertsons in an amicus brief Wednesday, telling the Oregon federal judge overseeing the Federal Trade Commission's challenge to the deal that blocking it would actually "weaken, not protect, competition."
August 13, 2024
Kroger and Albertsons have assailed the Federal Trade Commission's challenge to their merger, telling an Oregon federal judge that there's no need to preliminarily block the deal because the agency is pushing a "never before applied" theory that reducing head-to-head competition is illegal, which the grocery stores said is undone by the law and the companies' planned divestiture of 579 stores.
August 06, 2024
A group of Democratic lawmakers is supporting the Federal Trade Commission in its suit to block Kroger's $25 billion acquisition of Albertsons, telling an Oregon federal judge in a friend-of-the-court brief that the agency's fears the deal would harm grocery workers and consumers are well-founded.