Groceries Seek Rehearing of C&S Wholesale Market Allocation Suit

Independent groceries that accused C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. and SuperValu Inc. of a market allocation scheme asked the full Eighth Circuit to revive their lawsuit against C&S after a three-judge panel rejected it.

The panel ruling “erases the distinction between territorial allocation” and “customer allocation,” the supermarkets say in court papers filed Monday. “The result of the panel’s precedential opinion will be to eliminate customer allocation as an independent cause of action in this circuit.”

The antitrust suit—one of five consolidated proposed class actions—targeted an “asset exchange” the two grocery wholesalers executed after C&S bought most of the assets ...