FTC Scraps PepsiCo Price Discrimination Case In 3-0 Vote, Marking Major Shift As Trump-Era Leadership Reverses Biden Crackdown

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-0 on Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit against PepsiCo Inc. PEP that accused the beverage giant of offering preferential pricing to major retailers, marking a significant shift from former President Joe Biden-era corporate scrutiny under the President Donald Trump administration.

What Happened: The FTC dropped the case filed in January’s final days of the Biden administration, with NBC News reporting that Chair Andrew Ferguson criticized it as “a nakedly political effort to commit this administration to pursuing little more than a hunch that Pepsi had violated the law.”

Ferguson, who dissented when the case was originally filed as a commissioner, now leads the agency after President Trump fired two Democratic commissioners in March.

The original lawsuit alleged PepsiCo violated the Robinson-Patman Act by providing unfair pricing advantages to Walmart Inc. WMT through promotional payments and advertising allowances not extended to competing retailers.

PepsiCo welcomed the decision, stating it “has always and will continue to provide all customers with fair, competitive, and non-discriminatory pricing.”

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Why It Matters: The case was part of broader Biden administration efforts targeting price discrimination, following a December action against Southern Glazer’s wine and spirits distributor.

The FTC also paused separate cases against CVS Health Corp. CVS, Cigna Group CI, and UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH over pharmacy benefit manager practices, citing commissioner shortages after Trump’s personnel changes.

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