(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A judge has temporarily halted a planned merger between the owners of two of Chicago's best-known grocery chains.
Kroger and Albertsons announced a proposed merger in 2022. As a part of the merger, they planned to sell around 400 Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s and Food for Less locations – including 14 in Illinois to C&S Wholesale grocers. Kroger is Mariano’s parent company and Albertsons owns Jewel-Osco.
U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued the ruling Tuesday after holding a three-week hearing in Portland, Oregon.
Kroger and Albertsons in 2022 proposed what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history. But the Federal Trade Commission sued earlier this year, asking Nelson to block the $24.6 billion deal until an in-house administrative judge at the FTC could consider the merger’s implications.
Nelson agreed to pause the merger.
“Any harms defendants experience as a result of the injunction do not overcome the strong public interest in the enforcement of antitrust law, especially given the difficulty in disentangling a premature merger,” she wrote in her opinion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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