FTC Brings First Robinson-Patman Act Enforcement Action In Decades

On December 12, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued the largest distributor of wine and spirits in the United States—Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, LLC (Southern)—for violations of the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) in the retail sale of wine and spirits. The RPA, enacted in 1936, addressed the concern at the time that large conglomerates were receiving more favorable pricing for the same products sold to small resellers, harming competition. Although there was a time when the FTC frequently challenged companies' practices under the RPA, until this complaint the RPA was not federally prosecuted for nearly two decades. Indeed, as part of the work of the Antitrust Modernization Commission of 2002, many commentators predicted that the RPA would be withdrawn. A renewed interest in the RPA started in 2022 when the FTC issued a policy statement highlighting the RPA with the then immediate goal of addressing high pharmaceutical industry prices. But FTC then