The National Grocers Association (NGA) announced it sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) urging both agencies to promptly use their existing antitrust authorities to address market manipulation by dominant national grocery retail power buyers, especially Walmart. NGA warned that unchecked buyer power is raising rivals’ costs, accelerating consolidation, and directly contributing to higher food prices for American consumers.
NGA represents more than 21,500 independent grocery retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers nationwide. These family-owned and regional businesses account for roughly one-third of U.S. grocery sales, and play a critical role in local economic vitality, job creation, and food access, especially in rural and underserved urban communities.
Legal compliance requirement
In its letter, NGA urged the agencies to reinvigorate enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) and Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits discriminatory pricing and promotional treatment among competing purchasers. Although Congress enacted the RPA to prevent large buyers from using their size to undermine competition, federal enforcement has been largely abandoned for decades, allowing dominant power buyers to extract preferential pricing, promotions, packaging, fees, and access to product supply that are not available to independent competitors.
“Buyer power abuses are no longer theoretical. They are showing up in higher prices, fewer competitors, and shrinking food access, especially in smaller and rural communities,” said Chris Jones, NGA Chief Government Relations Officer and Counsel. “When dominant retailers coerce suppliers into subsidizing their advantage, the costs do not disappear. They are pushed onto family-owned supermarkets and, ultimately, onto consumers.”
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Evidence of manipulation
NGA pointed to newly unsealed court filings from a previously dismissed FTC case that detail a strategy in which preferential pricing arrangements were used to protect Walmart’s price advantage while intentionally raising costs for competing grocers and their customers. While the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, the underlying allegations reinforce longstanding concerns raised by independent grocers about how buyer power is used to distort competition.
In the letter, NGA also cited a growing body of economic research showing that markets with higher retail concentration experience faster price increases, greater inflation pass-through, and higher long-term grocery prices. Studies from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and leading academic journals demonstrate that weakened competition, not efficiency, is driving higher margins and higher consumer costs in concentrated retail markets.
“These findings directly challenge the unsubstantiated assumption that buyer power automatically benefits consumers,” Jones said. “The evidence now shows that lax enforcement leads to both higher prices and fewer choices.”
NGA emphasized that abusive buyer power also harms farmers and producers by suppressing prices paid upstream while increasing costs downstream, compounding risk across the food supply chain.