Advocates Denounce FTC’s Rubber Stamping of Amazon-Whole Foods Merger
08.24.17
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter
Washington, D.C.—“This week, the Federal Trade Commission rashly rubber stamped the $14 billion Amazon-Whole Foods merger—to the detriment of farmers and consumers across the U.S. The scale and complexity of the deal warranted a thorough investigation into how the merger would affect upstream suppliers, like the thousands of local farmers and innovative food companies that supply Whole Foods, as well as rival organic and natural grocery retailers.
“On the campaign trail, Trump vilified Amazon as an unfair e-commerce monopoly, but his administration quietly approved a deal that will affect farmers and consumers coast-to-coast. The past few years have seen an agribusiness, supermarket and food company mega-merger mania that is harming farmers and consumers, and the federal antitrust regulators have been asleep at the switch — under both Trump and Obama. It is long past time for Washington to stand up to the merger mania sweeping everything from seed companies to supermarkets into its monopolist maw.”
Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, [email protected]
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