US Sugar-Imperial Deal Should Be Blocked, DOJ Says in Appeal

The Justice Department urged the Third Circuit to block US Sugar‘s $315 million planned acquisition of rival Imperial Sugar, arguing that a lower court erred in approving the deal that would drive up prices.

The DOJ antitrust division’s brief, filed Tuesday, laid out its legal reasoning to accompany its appeal at the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Judge Maryellen Norieka of the US District of Delaware last month allowed the deal to proceed. But she erred in finding flaws in the government’s definitions of the market for sugar, the DOJ said in the brief.

The Third ...