Warren Presses FTC, Pepsi on Dismissal of Pricing Bias Lawsuit

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and other Democratic lawmakers pressed the Federal Trade Commission and PepsiCo Inc. on Wednesday about the dismissal of an agency lawsuit that accused the soft drink maker of discriminatory pricing practices by charging small retailers higher prices than Walmart Inc.

“We are seeking answers regarding whether the FTC’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit was politically motivated, and we urge the FTC to reconsider its decision to abandon the lawsuit,” they said in a letter to the agency’s chair, Andrew Ferguson. “President Trump ran on a promise to lower prices ‘on Day One’, and yet under your leadership, it appears the FTC is letting companies off the hook when they collude to raise grocery prices.”

In a separate letter, Warren told Pepsi CEO Ramon Laguarta that previous answers to lawmakers’ inquiry seemed false and misleading. He had responded to a separate Warren letter in May by saying Pepsi didn’t control retail pricing and that its pricing architecture is designed to ensure that all retailers receive competitive, nondiscriminatory pricing.

But an unredacted version of the FTC’s complaint unsealed last month “appears to indicate that Pepsi’s responses to our previous inquiry into this matter were evasive and inaccurate,” the new letter to Pepsi said.

The agency in January 2025, days before the presidential changeover, sued Pepsi under the Robinson-Patman Act, a 1930s law that prohibits sellers from engaging in anticompetitive and discriminatory pricing practices.

That suit, brought under former FTC Chair Lina Khan, alleged that Pepsi violated the law by extending unfair pricing advantages to a big-box retail customer. While the agency didn’t name the big-box retailer at the time, it was later revealed to be Walmart.

In May, the FTC voluntary dismissed the complaint with no dissents. Trump had fired two of the commissioners, Democrats Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, who voted to authorize the complaint.

“The FTC complaint revealed de-facto collusion between Walmart and Pepsi to keep competitors from cutting prices,” the Wednesday letter to Pepsi said. “It indicated that in return for Pepsi’s support in monitoring and enforcing the price gap, Walmart provided Pepsi favorable advertising and shelf placement within its stores.”

The letters were signed by 11 Democratic lawmakers from both chambers, including Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and the co-chairs of the House Monopoly Busters Caucus.