FTC Orders 7-Eleven, Marathon To Divest Over 200 Stores

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Friday ordered 7-Eleven to sell over 200 retail outlets following its $21 billion acquisition of the Speedway fuel chain from Marathon Petroleum, reported Reuters.

Marathon Petroleum, which owned the Speedway chain, and 7-Eleven, owned by Japan’s Seven & I Holdings, announced last month they had closed the $21 billion deal involving some 3,800 stores in 36 states.

Two top FTC officials had previously said the deal was potentially illegal, Reuters reported. In a proposed consent order with the companies, the FTC said 7-Eleven and Marathon are required to divest 124 retail fuel outlets to Anabi Oil, 106 retail fuel outlets to Cross America Partners and 63 retail fuel outlets to Jacksons Food Stores.

According to the complaint, markets for retail gasoline and retail diesel fuel are highly localized and consumers have no economic or practical alternatives to the retail sale of gasoline or diesel fuel. The complaint alleged the acquisition would harm competition for the retail sale of fuel in 293 local markets across the U.S.

The complaint alleged that without a remedy, the acquisition reduced the number of independent competitors to three or fewer in each of the 293 markets.