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Federal Trade Commission Drops Price Discrimination Suit Against PepsiCo

May 22, 2025

The Biden-appointed FTC in January claimed the company gave unfair pricing to ‘an unnamed, large, big box retailer.’

The Trump-appointed Federal Trade Commission today (May 22) voted to dismiss a lawsuit filed in the final days of the Biden-appointed FTC that accused PepsiCo of price discrimination by providing one customer—an unnamed, large, big box retailer—with unfair discounts that resulted in higher prices for competing retailers.

The FTC’s original charges were filed on Jan. 17 of this year. The commission voted 3-2 at that time for a permanent injunction and other equitable relief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Andrew Ferguson, one of the two dissenters at the time, now is chairman of the FTC. Today he called the case “a nakedly political effort to commit this administration to pursuing little more than a hunch that Pepsi had violated the law” – according to an NBC News report.

NBC also noted that top-ranking Democrats in Congress a week ago sent a letter to PepsiCo demanding more information on the company’s pricing strategy, apparently seeing price-gouging as a driver of inflation, while the Trump administration apparently believes unfair trade arrangements are the culprit.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.