Washington, D.C. – The National Grocers Association (NGA) welcomed the bipartisan discussion on competition policy and the bottom-line impact on America’s independent grocers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing held last week.
When Federal Trade Commissioner Chair Lina Khan testified at an oversight hearing held on Thursday, July 13, before the House Judiciary Committee, key Republicans and Democrats found some rare common ground in their lines of questioning.
Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-18) and Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) led a substantive discussion on competition policy and the bottom-line impact on America’s independent grocers and the shoppers who depend on them.
Rep. Lofgren pressed Chair Khan to use the Robinson-Patman Act as a tool to check exponential consolidation and buyer-power abuses in the marketplace.
Rep. Massie. chairman of the Antitrust Subcommittee, said, “My constituents aren’t contacting me worried about mergers between tech companies. But one thing I’ve been contacted about multiple times is the small independent grocers feel like there are monopolistic practices being used against them.” He then showed Chair Khan a bipartisan letter he wrote with Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA 46) pushing the FTC for a closed-door briefing on the commission’s investigation into grocery practices.
“It’s encouraging to know that key members of Congress are asking the right questions. We hope that they, and the FTC, will follow through with action, bolstering and updating the nation’s antitrust laws for the 21st Century,” said Chris Jones, NGA senior vice president of government relations and counsel.
Dominant food retailers have gotten exponentially bigger over the past few decades, and they routinely use that power to their own advantage — often to the disadvantage of independent stores that serve rural and urban areas of this country. The Robinson-Patman Act was passed to level the playing field for stores big and small, ensuring free and fair competition that benefits everyone from Main Street to Wall Street.
###
About NGA
NGA is the national trade association representing the retail and wholesale community grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry. An independent retailer is a privately owned or controlled food retail company operating a variety of formats. The independent grocery sector is accountable for about 1.2 percent of the nation’s overall economy and is responsible for generating more than $250 billion in sales, 1.1 million jobs, $39 billion in wages and $36 billion in taxes. NGA members include retail and wholesale grocers located in every congressional district across the country, as well as state grocers’ associations, manufacturers and service suppliers. For more information about NGA, visit www.nationalgrocers.org.
