Seattle City Wire

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a member of the U.S. Congress representing Washington's 7th district, recently shared updates on legal actions surrounding a significant merger case through a series of tweets. Her statements provided insight into the proceedings and highlighted the implications for workers and consumers.

On December 11, 2024, Rep. Jayapal noted that alongside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit, there was another lawsuit filed in January 2024 by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is now Governor-elect. This separate challenge to the merger was filed in Washington state court "Simultaneous to the FTC suit, there was also a separate lawsuit filed in Jan 2024 by WA AG (now Gov-elect) @BobFergusonAG also filed a separate challenge to the merger in WA state court."

Continuing her commentary on December 11, Rep. Jayapal emphasized the ongoing efforts of workers who organized to share their stories about potential impacts if grocery stores closed due to mergers. She expressed concerns about rising prices and limited employment options leading to lower wages "Throughout all of this, the organizing with workers continued, telling their stories and making the issue real for people about what it would mean to lose grocery stores to closures, to see prices go up and workers have less options for work and therefore lower wages."

In another tweet from December 11, Rep. Jayapal reported that a federal judge had blocked the merger based on identified harms. She further mentioned that shortly after this decision, a similar ruling came from Washington state court blocking the merger on comparable grounds "All this culminated in the federal judge's decision yesterday BLOCKING the merger and very clearly calling out the harms we had identified. Shortly after, the WA state case decision also came out, blocking the merger on the same grounds as the federal judge."