FTC settles with Southern Glazer's over claim it discriminated against
smaller alcohol sellers
[October 03, 2026] By
DEE-ANN DURBIN
The Federal Trade Commission said Friday it settled with the largest
U.S. distributor of wines and spirits over claims that it was
discriminating against small and independent businesses.
The agency sued Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits in December 2024
after finding it didn’t give smaller stores access to the discounts and
rebates it offered larger stores like Total Wine, Walmart and Kroger,
even when stores were within a few blocks of each other.
The FTC’s case was based on the rarely enforced 1936 Robinson-Patman
Act, which permits volume discounts but only if a seller can demonstrate
that it's achieving real cost efficiencies by selling in bulk.
Under the settlement agreement, Southern Glazer’s must pay the smaller
retailer if it engages in significant or recurring price discrimination
when it sells the same products to a larger store nearby. An independent
monitor will oversee the settlement for six years, the FTC said.
Southern Glazer's must provide the monitor with detailed records twice a
year.
Southern Glazer’s is one of the largest privately held companies in the
U.S. and generated $26 billion in revenue from wine and spirits sales to
retail customers in 2023, according to the FTC. It distributes one out
of every three bottles of wine and spirits in the U.S.
Southern Glazer's said Friday it was pleased to reach a settlement
agreement that resolved the case without a trial or an admission of
wrongdoing.
“Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits did not violate—and is not
violating—the Robinson-Patman Act,” Alan Greenspan, Southern Glazer's
chief legal and compliance officer, said in a statement. “The proposed
order does not outright prohibit Southern Glazer’s from engaging in any
particular business activity, and we do not anticipate material changes
to our business or pricing practices.”
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 The settlement covers Southern
Glazer’s sales to the five largest chain retailers in 26 states. The
FTC’s lawsuit originally alleged discrimination in 33 states, but a
subsequent investigation failed to show that it occurred in seven of
them.
The states covered by the order are: Alaska,
Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii,
Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota,
Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
The FTC filed the lawsuit during the waning days of former President
Joe Biden's administration. Andrew Ferguson, who was named FTC
chairman on the day President Donald Trump took office in January
2025, said Friday that he didn’t initially support the lawsuit
against Southern Glazer’s.
In a statement, Ferguson said he believed Southern Glazer’s could
prove that most of the price differences were justified by
differences in the costs of supplying various retailers.
But the case proceeded after a federal court denied Southern
Glazer’s attempt to dismiss it in April 2025. Ferguson said the
settlement was the best outcome for all parties.
“The order is self-calibrating: Southern pays only where a monitor
finds that an independent retailer actually paid more than a
competing chain,” Ferguson said. “If Southern obeys the law, its
compliance costs are low.”
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