Whole Foods Settles Antitrust Case, Agrees to Sell 32 Wild Oats Stores

The Federal Trade Commission’s longtime effort to unravel the purchase of Wild Oats by Whole Foods has ended in a settlement.

Whole Foods has agreed to sell 32 of 74 Wild Oats groceries, restoring competition in 17 geographic areas, reports The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. Several of the 32 groceries that will be sold had already been closed, according to the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).

FTC lawyers have fought the merger since June 2007. The agency lost a request for an injunction at the trial level before winning a federal appeals court ruling that the trial judge had used the wrong legal standard.