By Dave Michaels and Laura Cooper
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday sued PepsiCo, alleging the beverage company forced many consumers to pay higher prices by providing a single large retail buyer with unfair pricing advantages.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, is premised on a decades-old law that forbids suppliers from selling goods at different prices to retailers. The statute, which dates from the 1930s, sought to preserve a level playing field between small retailers and bigger sellers such as grocery chains.
The FTC under Chair Lina Khan has sought to revive enforcement of the law, which withered during the 1980s as critics argued it effectively disallowed discounting and resulted in higher prices.
The FTC said PepsiCo provided promotional pricing deals to a single "big-box" customer, which the agency didn't name. The agency said it didn't give the same pricing to smaller stores, which "led to inflated prices for American families."
Friday's lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is part of a raft of measures that Khan has filed during her last week in office, with Republican commissioners dissenting on many of them.
The five-member FTC voted to approve the lawsuit against PepsiCo on a 3-2 vote, with its two Republicans voting against the case.
Write to Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com and Laura Cooper at laura.cooper@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2025 11:51 ET (16:51 GMT)
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