Top-ranking Democrats are pressing Pepsi for information on its pricing, renewing pressure on a major consumer brand as inflation concerns persist under the new Republican administration.
The letter, sent Sunday evening by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York and seen by NBC News, asks Pepsi to explain alleged disparities in the prices it charges big-box chains versus smaller retailers. It asks the beverage and snack foods giant to respond by May 25 with details on how it charges retailers for its products, and whether the company or its subsidiaries offer preferential discounts or advertising opportunities to large chains.
“Pepsi’s actions may have harmed local mom-and-pop stores’ ability to compete against big-box grocery chains, leading to higher prices and fewer options for consumers,” they wrote in the letter, which was also signed by seven other Democratic lawmakers.
A PepsiCo spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter revives a Biden-era focus on price-gouging. Whereas Democrats blamed corporate greed and purported anticompetitive behavior for contributing to consumer price hikes, Republicans are more focused on trade. They accuse foreign countries of “ripping off” Americans and back sweeping tariffs as a solution.
The Federal Trade Commission sued Pepsi on Jan. 17, the final business day of President Joe Biden’s administration, accusing the snack and beverage giant of “rigging soft drink competition” by allegedly giving an unnamed big-box retailer more favorable pricing than its rivals.
The commission cited a 1936 law that had largely fallen out of enforcement since the deregulatory push of the 1980s, alleging that Pepsi violated rules against offering competing buyers different prices or promotional resources. The FTC used the same statute in December to sue a major liquor distributor for alleged price discrimination that it said favored large grocery chains over smaller competitors.
An FTC spokesperson pointed Monday to Chairman Andrew Ferguson’s earlier statement dissenting to the lawsuit filed against Pepsi in January, when he was a commissioner at the agency. Ferguson called the complaint “a cynical attempt to tie the hands of the incoming Trump Administration,” criticizing it as “partisan politics, pure and simple” and based on “little more than a hunch.”
“It is the single most brazen assertion of raw political power I have witnessed during my time as a Commissioner,” he wrote at the time.
A Pepsi spokesperson didn’t immediately comment.