Antitrust Suit Against Wholesale Grocers Revived by Appellate
Court
On May 21, 2014, in In re: Wholesale Grocery Products
Antitrust Litig., a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit
vacated an order of summary judgment in favor of defendants
SuperValu, Inc., and C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., two wholesale
grocers who allegedly divided up geographic markets by way of
reciprocal noncompetition agreements executed in the context of
SuperValu's transfer of its New England assets to C&S. The
Western District of Wisconsin had granted summary judgment in favor
of the nation's two largest wholesale grocers on the grounds
that the noncompetition agreement was not a per se antitrust
violation because it applied only to former customers and
theoretically permitted the wholesalers to compete for existing and
future customers.
