Defended Supervalu in Extensive Antitrust Class Action Litigation

In re Wholesale Grocery Products Antitrust Litigation, 09-md-02090 (D. Minn.)

Robins Kaplan served as lead defense counsel representing grocery wholesaler Supervalu Inc. in consolidated federal antitrust actions on behalf of a putative multi-state class of grocery retailers seeking $1 billion in damages. The litigation challenged an asset exchange transaction between Supervalu and a competing wholesaler, and in a related Federal Trade Commission investigation regarding the asset exchange transaction. Robins Kaplan persuaded the FTC to close its investigation without action, and it obtained a ruling excluding plaintiff’s economics expert under Daubert and granting summary judgment in Supervalu’s favor. 2018 WL 3862773 (D. Minn. Aug. 14, 2018). 

Robins Kaplan also served as lead appellate counsel representing Supervalu Inc. in nine separate appeals and one petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court stemming from the multidistrict litigation proceedings. In the final appeal, Robins Kaplan obtained the Eighth Circuit’s affirmance of an order excluding the plaintiffs’ economics expert under Daubert and granting summary judgment in Supervalu’s favor. 946 F.3d 995 (8th Cir. 2019).