F.T.C. Sues Largest U.S. Alcohol Distributor for Illegal Pricing

With just six weeks left in office, the Biden administration announced a new push, using an old law, to crack down on anticompetitive business practices.The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, accusing the largest alcohol distributor in the United States of unjustifiably charging higher prices to small businesses and limiting their ability to compete with big chains.Since at least 2018, Southern Glazer’s has offered steep discounts to large buyers like Kroger and Costco while imposing higher prices on neighborhood stores and independent shops that buy similar products, the F.T.C.

said.The agency filed the antitrust lawsuit under a 1936 law that prohibits sellers from offering better prices to some buyers and not others, often at the expense of smaller businesses, without a justification based on differences in the cost of distribution.

The law, called the Robinson-Patman Act, had not been enforced in more than two decades.The suit comes just days after a federal judge ruled in the F.T.C.’s favor in its effort to block Kroger’s proposed $25 billion acquisition of rival grocery chain Albertsons.It is consistent with the administration’s efforts to clamp down on what it sees as anticompetitive practices across industries, from technology to retail.“When local businesses get squeezed because of unfair pricing practices that favor large chains, Americans see fewer choices and pay higher prices — and communities suffer,” F.T.C.

chair Lina Khan said in a statement announcing the lawsuit....