Nevada attorney general joins lawsuit challenging supermarket merger

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Monday, Feb. 26, 2024 | 12:53 p.m.

Nevada’s Aaron Ford is joining several other state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission in filing a lawsuit challenging the proposed merger of Kroger and Alebertsons.

The merger of the two largest national supermarket chains presents a “significant risk of reduced competition and higher food prices nationwide,” Ford’s office said in a statement.

“This merger would create an anticompetitive marketplace, raise prices on everyday Nevadans and harm grocery store employees,” Ford said.

“As anyone who does the shopping for their family knows, grocery prices have climbed high in recent years. Nevadans don’t deserve for those prices to climb any higher,” Ford said.

The attorney general is responsible for enforcing consumer protection statutes, including antitrust laws. This enforcement includes taking legal action when necessary to protect Nevadans’s consumer rights, Ford’s office said.

Ford previously held a series of listening sessions with the community about the proposed merger. His office also took thousands of online statements regarding the merger.

“Nevadans made their concerns known regarding this merger, and we listened,” Ford said.

The lawsuit alleges the proposed merger violates the federal Clayton Act, which prohibits the acquisition of assets that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly. 

Businesses facing less competition have the ability to charge higher prices without providing improvements to the quality of goods, Ford’s office said.

Anticompetitive supermarket mergers can impose other harms, including a reduction in labor market competition, which may lower wages or slow wage growth and worsen benefits or working conditions, Ford’s office said.

Attorneys general in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming, also joined in filing the lawsuit.