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FTC Pumps the Brakes on 7-Eleven with Record Settlement
by
Cozen O'Connor
The FTC
secured
a $4.5 million settlement with 7-Eleven, Inc. and its parent company, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (collectively, “7-Eleven”), to resolve allegations that the convenience store chain violated a 2018 FTC consent order by acquiring a St. Petersburg, Florida fuel outlet without providing the required prior notice to the FTC.
The 2018 order was imposed to resolve antitrust concerns following 7-Eleven’s acquisition of 1,100 Sunoco fuel outlets, which the FTC alleged would harm competition and raise fuel prices in 76 markets. The order required 7-Eleven to divest certain outlets and provide advance notice before acquiring additional outlets in those markets.
Under the terms of the
settlement
, 7-Eleven must divest the St. Petersburg outlet to a qualified buyer and must comply with the heightened prior-approval and prior-notice requirements of the 2018 order. In addition, the $4.5 million civil penalty is the largest that the FTC has ever collected for a prior-notice violation and the largest negotiated settlement for any order violation in the Bureau of Competition’s history.
We previously reported on the FTC’s
filing
of the
complaint
to initiate this enforcement action.
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