A battle between two supermarket chains just turned into a billion-dollar lawsuit

By Matthew Speiser

Haggen - a supermarket chain based in the Pacific Northwest - is suing Albertsons for $1 billion.
The chain is alleging Albertsons tricked them into buying 146 stores to facilitate Albertsons' merger with grocery chain, Safeway and then proceeded to sabotage Haggen's entry into the new markets.

Haggen claims Albertsons engaged in "systematic efforts" to eliminate it as a competitor in five states after the Federal Trade Commission forced Albertsons to sell 146 of its stores to Haggen as part of its merger with Safeway earlier this year, the LA Times reports.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Delaware, Haggen says it has since been forced to lay off hundreds of workers and close about a fifth of the stores it had acquired from Albertsons.

"Albertsons' illegal campaign includes premeditated acts of unfair and anti-competitive conduct that were calculated to circumvent Albertsons' obligations under federal antitrust laws, Federal Trade Commission orders and contractual commitments to Haggen," the lawsuit said, according to the LA Times.

The Seattle Times reports Haggen claims Albertsons provided them with misleading price information about products, muddled inventory data, understocked certain stores and overstocked others with perishable products, and ran ad campaigns and discounts to steal customers away from the converted stores, all of which allegedly doomed Haggen's acquisition of the stores from the start.

"Had Haggen known Albertsons' true intentions, Haggen would never have purchased the stores, nor would the FTC have permitted such a purchase," the lawsuit claims.

Albertsons said the lawsuit's allegations "are completely without merit," the LA Times added.