The Federal Trade Commission has sued to block Kroger & Albertsons, the 2nd & 3rd largest grocery chains, from merging. The FTC says that the $24.6 billion deal would be bad for consumers. They say that it would create higher prices for customers and would eliminate competition. The lawsuit was filed in a U.S. District Court in Oregon on Monday, followed by the suit filed in 8 other states as well as D.C.
Both companies said that they would challenge the lawsuit. The FTC said that this would be the biggest grocery merger in U.S. history, as Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger, which operates stores in Colorado under the King Soopers & City Market names – and Boise, Idaho-based Albertson’s which operates stores under the Safeway brand, would combine operations. The 2 companies had hoped to close the deal early this year, but if the deal does go through, that may not happen until possibly August. This is a developing story.