Whole Foods Market has filed an action in the US District Court against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for alleged errors in determining if its acquisition of rival Wild Oats violated antitrust laws.
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The premium US grocer said yesterday (8 December) that the violations of its rights are “stark” and “hurt the FTC’s credibility”.
“Even more so does the FTC’s insistence on hearing this case rather than allowing an objective federal court to hear it,” said Lanny Davis, attorney for Whole Foods Market.
The first count of the complaint quotes specific biased prejudgments of the FTC made publicly in legal findings in 2008, such as the FTC declaring that the Whole Foods Market-Wild Oats Markets merger reduced competition and was anti-competitive.
“How can the same FTC sit as judge and jury sometime in the future of the very same case in which it has already declared that the Whole Foods-Wild Oats merger is illegal and its key expert testimony ‘garbage’?” siad John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market. “The answer is – it shouldn’t be allowed to. It has obviously already closed its mind. That’s not our understanding of what due process and principles of fundamental fairness are all about.”
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By GlobalDataDavis said the complaint’s second count shows another due process violation. “The FTC is forcing Whole Foods Market to go to trial in just five months and defend itself in 29 separate geographic jurisdictions in a merger that was not anti-competitive. That is unreasonable and impossible, and thus, a violation of Whole Foods’ due process rights to a fair trial,” he added.
