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US: Dollar Express sues Dollar Tree for driving it out of business

 |  June 4, 2017

US discount retailer Dollar Express has filed a lawsuit accusing rival Family Dollar and its parent company Dollar Tree of driving it out of business, the third government-required divestiture to fail in recent years.

Dollar Express was formed in 2015 when private equity group Sycamore Partners bought some 330 stores in 35 states from Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. Family Dollar had to sell the stores in order to win antitrust approval to merge with Dollar Tree.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday, Dollar Express accuses Dollar Tree of using confidential information to open new shops near the divested stores to drive them out of business.

It also accused Dollar Tree of putting underqualified and inattentive store managers in divested stores.

“Dollar Express’s damages, which include the lost prospective value of the acquisition of the stores, may exceed one-half billion dollars, with the ultimate amount of damages to be determined at trial,” Dollar Express said in its complaint.

Dollar Express in the lawsuit says these and other actions lead to it obtaining Federal Trade Commission approval in April to go out of business and sell its stores to Dollar General.

Full Content: Charlotte Observer

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