The U-S Justice Department is backing a suit by Colorado to block the $24.6-billion dollar merger of supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons. Albertsons owns Safeway.
The Colorado suit was filed in state court while the initial legal challenge was filed in federal court by the Federal Trade Commission and 8 states plus Washington, DC.
Kroger and Albertsons have filed motions to dismiss the Colorado suit, arguing the state doesn’t have authority to seek what they say would be a nationwide injunction.
The Justice Department, in a filing last Friday in state court, says while states often work with federal enforcers, they have the authority to pursue their own cases.
It notes that “federal antitrust laws do not preempt or otherwise preclude parallel state lawsuits to protect the public, even when states seek remedies different from those sought in an existing federal lawsuit.”
An attorney for Kroger slammed the Justice Department’s filing at a Tuesday hearing, saying it was “a 180” from the agency’s position on the proposed merger of wireless carriers TMobile USA and Sprint.
Colorado District Judge Andrew Luxen took the motion to dismiss under advisement, but gave no indication when he would rule.
He’d already scheduled a hearing in August on the state’s request for a preliminary injunction against the deal over alleged harm to Colorado residents.