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On December 12, 2024, following a virtually two-year-long investigation, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) initiated its first litigation beneath the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) in additional than twenty years. The FTC sued Southern Glazer’s, a big wine and spirits distributor, alleging the corporate charged larger costs to smaller retailer prospects than it did to giant chains, violating the RPA.
The litigation, filed within the final days of the Biden administration’s antitrust regime, might in the end finish with a whimper beneath the following administration. However for corporations managing trendy pricing techniques, the grievance and the controversy surrounding it present vital insights into how complainants may search to advance RPA fits in at present’s retail setting. The grievance illustrates how present FTC management supposed to operationalize its new deal with value discrimination and supplies a roadmap for a way state regulators and personal plaintiffs can litigate the problem no matter how the FTC proceeds beneath the brand new administration. Maybe much more helpful, the dissents filed by FTC Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson counsel a blueprint for a authorized response to future actions which will resonate with different regulators – and extra importantly, with federal and state judges.
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