..... And Then You Win*

There had been a lot of criticism of Lina Khan during her time as head of the Federal Trade Commission, most of which is in profoundly bad faith.

One of these is the assertion that her "Radical" antitrust agenda always loses in court.

Not so much these days.

Late this afternoon, Judge Adrienne Nelson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the $24 billion merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, leaving Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan with yet another big litigation win. On BIG, we’ve covered this merger several times, because of its size, scale, and legal importance.

Nelson had a strong opinion, echoing the FTC’s argument in challenging the merger. The commission’s logic was simple. Kroger and Albertsons, if they combine, will gain market power and use it to raise prices to consumers and lower wages to workers. There’s a lot more than that, of course, but that’s the gist. I’m going to highlight some of what Nelson wrote, which includes important statements on labor and the new merger guidelines, but first I want to give some context on why the merger mattered. Let’s start with the food industry, which is already far too consolidated. My earlier analysis of the case hasn’t changed, so I’ll just quote it here.

It's likely that a Trump FTC Chair will walk away from this, but this is still a big win.

^*The full quote is, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win," often incorrectly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.