WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had filed an antitrust lawsuit aimed at blocking U.S. Sugar Corp from buying rival Imperial Sugar Co.
The department said it filed the lawsuit because the proposed transaction would likely mean higher prices for refined sugar in the southeastern United States.
“U.S. Sugar and Imperial Sugar are already multibillion-dollar corporations and are seeking to further consolidate an already cozy sugar industry,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
U.S. Sugar announced in March that it would buy Imperial Sugar, which has operations in Georgia and Kentucky, from Louis Dreyfus Co.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
