By Jaclyn Peiser
Source: The Washington Post
A federal judge in Oregon blocked Kroger’s $24.6 billion acquisition of grocery rival Albertsons on Tuesday, marking the possible end of what would have been the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history.
In issuing a temporary injunction, U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson said allowing the two giants to combine would reduce competition, raising the cost of food and other staples for millions of Americans. The chains rank as the nation’s second- and fourth-largest grocers by sales, respectively.
The ruling is a decisive win for the Federal Trade Commission, which under the Biden administration has cracked down on megamergers on antitrust grounds. The FTC, joined by eight states and the District of Columbia, argued that allowing the Kroger-Albertsons deal to go forward would give consumers — who have already seen grocery prices surge by 22 percent over four years — even fewer choices.
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