Kroger and Albertsons Go From Merging to Colliding

You don’t see this every day: two companies planning to merge, failing spectacularly, and then immediately suing each other. But here we are with Kroger and Albertsons, the two biggest U.S. supermarket chains, whose $24.6 billion deal was blocked by courts Tuesday and descended into legal chaos by Wednesday.

Albertsons, fresh off abandoning the merger, hit Kroger with a lawsuit claiming “willful breach of contract” for allegedly not trying hard enough to win regulatory approval. Kroger fired back, calling the suit a “deflection” of Albertsons’ own failings. The stakes? “Billions” in damages, a $600 million breakup fee Albertsons wants but Kroger says it doesn’t owe, and, oh yeah, years of courtroom drama.

The merger’s collapse caps two years of litigation. Albertsons argued they needed Kroger to compete against retail titans like Walmart and Amazon. But courts, echoing the FTC, found the deal anti-competitive, potentially leading to higher prices and fewer choices for shoppers.

Albertsons now begins the hunt for a new buyer while Kroger nurses its legal wounds. For the FTC and Lina Khan, this was a high-profile victory. For the rest of us? Proof that even in the grocery aisle, breakups can be messy—and lawsuits come with a side of irony.