{"id":1836328,"date":"2023-02-06T07:21:16","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T12:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1836328"},"modified":"2023-02-06T07:21:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T12:21:42","slug":"grocery-consumers-sue-to-block-krogers-25-billion-buy-of-albertsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/grocery-consumers-sue-to-block-krogers-25-billion-buy-of-albertsons\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery Consumers Sue to Block Kroger\u2019s $25 Billion Buy of Albertsons"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgrocery-consumers-sue-to-block-krogers-25-billion-buy-of-albertsons%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1836328&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Albertsons-grocery-store-1200x830-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>California&#8217;s private lawsuit was filed Thursday seeking to stop the proceeding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-kroger\">Kroger<\/a> Co.\u2019s planned $25 billion purchase of rival <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-albertsons\">Albertsons<\/a> Companies Inc., a deal that state attorneys general, consumer groups and some U.S. lawmakers have questioned as harmful to competition in the grocery market.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 25 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-consumers\">consumers<\/a> in states including California, Texas and Florida who alleged the merger \u201cwill be used to increase prices for groceries, decrease the quality of food, eliminate jobs, close stores and offer less choice for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kroger is the biggest grocer in the U.S. by revenue, and Albertsons is the second-largest supermarket chain. Nearly 5,000 grocery stores would be under one corporate umbrella if the deal, announced in October, goes through.<\/p>\n<p>The companies have defended the deal as providing a \u201cmore efficient distribution chain\u201d and also have said they are working with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on its regulatory review. The lawsuit appears to be the first private action challenging the deal.<\/p>\n<p>A representative for Albertsons declined to comment on Friday, and a Kroger spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n<p>Stores under the Albertsons umbrella include Balducci\u2019s, Shaw\u2019s, Kings and Safeway. Kroger operates stores under banners including Harris Teeter, Pay Less and King Soopers.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. antitrust law lets private consumers sue over proposed mergers and acquisitions, apart from any enforcement action brought by a state or federal agency policing competition laws.<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs\u2019 lawyer Joseph Alioto in San Francisco, who was among the attorneys who filed the complaint, said \u201cthere\u2019s no question that Albertsons is a significant rival\u201d of Kroger\u2019s. \u201cIt\u2019s competition that they are eliminating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also said it seeks to force the disgorgement of a $4 billion dividend that Albertsons paid to shareholders after defeating a Washington state attorney general action challenging the payout. Plaintiffs claim the dividend \u201cgravely weakens Albertsons\u2019 ability to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A federal judge in Washington, D.C., separately declined to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the dividend.<\/p>\n<p>The case is: Whalen et al v. Kroger Co et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 3:23-cv-00459.<\/p>\n<p>For plaintiffs: Joseph Alioto of Alioto Law Firm; Joseph Saveri of Joseph Saveri Law Firm; and other firms<\/p>\n<p>For defendants: No appearance yet<\/p>\n<p><em>By Mike Scarcella<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California&#8217;s private lawsuit was filed Thursday seeking to stop the proceeding Kroger Co.\u2019s planned $25 billion purchase of rival Albertsons Companies Inc., a deal that state attorneys general, consumer groups and some U.S. lawmakers have questioned as harmful to competition in the grocery market. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 25 consumers in states &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1836331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[14819,17743,4728,8891,5285,17744,7170],"class_list":["post-1836328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-14819","tag-albertsons","tag-block","tag-consumers","tag-grocery","tag-krogers","tag-sue"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1836331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}