The National Grocers Association sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Jan. 20 urging both agencies to use current antitrust authorities to address market manipulation by dominant grocery retail power buyers, especially Walmart.
NGA warned that unchecked buyer power is raising rivals’ costs, accelerating consolidation and directly contributing to higher food prices for consumers.
NGA represents more than 21,500 independent grocery retailers, wholesalers and suppliers nationwide. These family-owned and regional businesses account for roughly one-third of U.S. grocery sales and play a critical role in local economic vitality, job creation and food access, especially in rural and underserved urban communities.
In its letter, NGA urged the agencies to reinvigorate enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibit discriminatory pricing and promotional treatment among competing purchasers. Although Congress enacted the Robinson-Patman Act to prevent large buyers from using their size to undermine competition, federal enforcement has been largely abandoned for decades, allowing dominant power buyers to extract preferential pricing, promotions, packaging, fees and access to product supply that are not available to independent competitors.
“Buyer power abuses are no longer theoretical. They are showing up in higher prices, fewer competitors, and shrinking food access, especially in smaller and rural communities,” said Chris Jones, NGA chief government relations officer and counsel.
“When dominant retailers coerce suppliers into subsidizing their advantage, the costs do not disappear. They are pushed onto family-owned supermarkets and, ultimately, onto consumers.”
NGA pointed to newly unsealed court filings from a previously dismissed FTC case that detail a strategy in which preferential pricing arrangements were used to protect Walmart’s price advantage while intentionally raising costs for competing grocers and their customers. While the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, the underlying allegations reinforce longstanding concerns raised by independent grocers about how buyer power is used to distort competition.
In the letter, NGA cited a growing body of economic research showing that markets with higher retail concentration experience faster price increases, greater inflation pass-through and higher long-term grocery prices. Studies from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and leading academic journals demonstrate that weakened competition, not efficiency, is driving higher margins and higher consumer costs in concentrated retail markets.
“These findings directly challenge the unsubstantiated assumption that buyer power automatically benefits consumers,” Jones said. “The evidence now shows that lax enforcement leads to both higher prices and fewer choices.”
NGA emphasized that abusive buyer power also harms farmers and producers by suppressing prices paid upstream while increasing costs downstream, compounding risk across the food supply chain.
The full text of the letter is available here.
[RELATED: NGA Backs Congressional Push For Antitrust Enforcement]