The standoff between a major liquor retailer and a federal agency appears to be nearing an end.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Retail Services & Systems, Inc. (RSSI), parent company of national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More, have reached a tentative agreement in the FTC’s civil investigative demand (CID) against the chain, according to a Law360 report.
Both parties filed a joint notice of settlement in principle with the court on Saturday to inform U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia judge Anthony J. Trenga that they “are in the process of preparing and finalizing a settlement agreement.”
“The parties intend to file a notice of final agreement and request that the court retain jurisdiction to enforce the agreement, if needed, as soon as practicable, but respectfully request that they be given [five] business days to do so,” the motion read.
The FTC filed the CID as part of its investigation of multistate distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, which began earlier this year.
The agency and Total Wine have been at odds since late October when the FTC filed a motion to compel the chain to comply with its CID.
Total Wine fired back in November asking the court to dismiss the motion and claimed that, thanks to the information it gave the FTC, the agency “knows every price that RSSI’s affiliated entities have paid since 2018 to Southern, along with the retail prices at which those products were sold.”
Southern is being investigated for alleged violations of the Robinson-Patman Act, which bars suppliers from offering favorable pricing to larger retailers, such as Total Wine, at the expense of smaller stores. The investigation followed a lawsuit filed by five small wine retailers in California against Southern in June 2022, alleging that the multi-state distributor offers lower prices to larger retailers, according to Wine Industry Insights.