The Kroger-Albertsons merger may be dead, but its legal aftermath is very much alive. Eight states and Washington, D.C. filed a petition on March 31 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon seeking $10.3 million in legal fees and litigation costs from the two grocery giants — a demand that, while modest in dollar terms, carries symbolic weight as the final chapter of one of retail's most expensive failed bets.
Grocery Dive reports that the plaintiff coalition includes Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C. — the states that coordinated their antitrust challenge alongside the Federal Trade Commission's successful effort to block the $24.6 billion deal. A ruling by U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson has already established that the states are entitled to recover attorneys' fees; what remains to be determined is the final amount.
What the $10.3 Million Represents
The figure is worth contextualizing. Supermarket News notes that $10.3 million represents only a small fraction of the nearly $1.5 billion in total costs the companies together accumulated during their failed bid to combine — including advisory fees, regulatory filings, divestitures that never happened, and years of management distraction. The states are essentially asking Kroger and Albertsons to help cover the public cost of reviewing a transaction the companies themselves chose to pursue.
The legal fees petition follows a sprawling review process. Progressive Grocer reports that the states were required to evaluate competitive dynamics across 2,537 individual geographic markets during the merger review — a scope that demanded significant resources, including economic experts and the review of millions of documents.
The Deeper Grocery Story
Beyond the legal maneuvering, the petition is a reminder of how much damage the failed merger inflicted on both chains. Kroger and Albertsons spent years and billions positioning for a deal that regulators ultimately viewed as a straightforward threat to grocery competition. NOSH.com reports that Albertsons has been particularly hard hit, closing roughly 20 stores in 2025 and cutting hundreds of jobs as it works to stabilize operations without the scale advantages the merger would have provided.
Kroger, meanwhile, has pivoted sharply. CEO Greg Foran — who joined from Walmart's retail operations — has been focused on remodeling stores, improving private label, and competing more aggressively on value as Walmart's grocery dominance continues to grow. The competitive pressure that made the merger attractive in the first place hasn't gone away; both companies just have to face it independently now.
What Comes Next
The fee petition requires judicial approval of the specific amount, and both Kroger and Albertsons are expected to contest portions of the request. The proceedings could extend through the summer of 2026. Neither company has made public statements specifically addressing the petition.
The broader implications aren't lost on the grocery industry. The Kroger-Albertsons collapse, combined with the regulatory scrutiny that followed, has effectively chilled major supermarket consolidation for the foreseeable future. Any grocery chain contemplating a large acquisition now has a very concrete data point: a failed deal can cost north of $1.5 billion even if it never closes, and the states that block it may show up later with their own invoice.
For Kroger and Albertsons, the $10.3 million ask is manageable. The real cost of their three-year merger attempt is something they're still paying.