FTC tosses PepsiCo price-fixing lawsuit, slams agency’s ex-boss
The Federal Trade Commission, now under Republican control, has decided to dismiss a lawsuit against PepsiCo that was filed by the previous commission during the Biden administration’s final days.
The lawsuit, which was filed in January, accused PepsiCo of providing unfair pricing advantages to Walmart at the expense of other vendors and consumers. It was based on the seldom-used 1936 Robinson-Patman Act, which prohibits companies from using promotional incentives to favor large customers over smaller ones.
When the lawsuit was initiated, Democrat Lina Khan was the FTC’s chairwoman, supported by Democratic Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Republican Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak dissented at the time.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, President Trump took office and Khan resigned. Trump later fired Bedoya and Slaughter in March, leading to legal action against the Trump administration by the two ousted commissioners.
Ferguson, who is now the chairman of the FTC, described the PepsiCo lawsuit as a “dubious partisan stunt” and emphasized that the FTC staff had more pressing matters to address.
“The Biden-Harris FTC rushed to authorize this case just three days before President Trump’s inauguration in a nakedly political effort to commit this administration to pursuing little more than a hunch that Pepsi had violated the law,” Ferguson stated.
A request for comment was made to PepsiCo on Thursday. Previously, the Purchase, New York-based company stated that it did not provide discounts or promotional support to some customers while excluding others.
