FTC settles with Southern Glazer's over claim it discriminated against smaller alcohol sellers

The Federal Trade Commission said Friday it settled with the largest U.S. distributor of wines and spirits over claims that it was discriminating against small and independent businesses. The agency sued Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits in December 2024 after finding it didn't give smaller stores access to the discounts and rebates it offered larger stores like Total Wine, Walmart and Kroger, even when stores were within a few blocks of each other. The FTC's case was based on the rarely enforced 1936 Robinson-Patman Act, which permits volume discounts but only if a seller can demonstrate that it's achieving real cost efficiencies by selling in bulk.