The Federal Trade Commission in a new lawsuit accuses the largest U.S. distributor of wine and spirits of illegal price discrimination that gave large chains — among them Costco, Kroger and Total Wine & More — much better prices than those offered to neighborhood grocery stores, convenience shops and independent liquor stores. The distributor, Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, is the tenth largest privately held company in the United States, generating about $26 billion in revenues from sales to retail customers in 2023, the FTC said Thursday in announcing the suit. The complaint says Southern, which distributes around 5,600 wine and spirit brands, deprived smaller businesses of access to discounts and rebates, harming their ability to compete with large national and regional chain stores. The suit alleges the distributor violated the Robinson-Patman Act by providing “steep discounts” without any market justification to a certain set of retailers. “When local businesses get squeezed because of unfair pricing practices that…
