Kroger files lawsuit against FTC
Kroger filed a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission on Monday in an effort to block the agency from reviewing its proposed $25 billion merger with Albertsons, per a Reuters report.
Kroger is calling for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, to block an administrative proceeding challenging its proposed acquisition of Albertsons.
Kroger said the tribunal was unconstitutional, and that the matter should be resolved in a federal court.
[Read more: Albertsons named Drug Store News Pharmacy Innovator of the Year 2022]
Kroger is scheduled to face an Aug. 26 trial, in which the FTC has asked a federal judge in Portland, Ore., to temporarily block the merger while its in-house judges review the deal.
In a lawsuit filed in February, the FTC said that the merger will hike prices for millions of Americans and squeeze the labor market for unionized grocery store workers. That in-house review could take years, Kroger said in the lawsuit, per the report.
[Read more: Kroger to lower prices following merger with Albertsons]
The report also said that Rodney McMullen, chairman of Kroger, said in a statement that the company is "prepared to defend this merger in the upcoming trial in federal court – the appropriate venue for this matter to be heard. We are asking the court to halt what amounts to an unlawful proceeding before the FTC's own in-house tribunal," per the report.