This private suit by consumers under Clayton Act section 7 was properly dismissed. As a condition of its approval of the merger of Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller, the Department of Justice required SABMiller to divest entirely its domestic beer business. Because the divestiture left SABMiller without a presence in the U.S. beer market, the consumers could not allege that ABI’s acquisition of SABMiller would substantially lessen competition in that market.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (McKeown, J.); August 8, 2018; 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 22035