Aug 6 (Reuters) - Beverage giant PepsiCo ( PEP ) has

been accused in a merchant lawsuit in U.S. court of illegally

giving some retailers better price deals than others, in a case

mirroring one that President Donald Trump's Federal Trade

Commission abandoned.

The proposed class action was filed on Tuesday in the

federal court in Manhattan by the operator of an Italian

restaurant alleging anticompetitive and unfair business

practices over the sale of Pepsi soft drinks.

The lawsuit alleges Pepsi is violating a provision of

antitrust law that forbids sellers from playing favorites with

pricing and discount opportunities, creating an uneven playing

field where one merchant pays a higher price than another for

the same products.

Pepsi has provided payments and allowances to Walmart ( WMT ),

according to the lawsuit, that are not also made available to

competing retailers.

The restaurant in its lawsuit said Pepsi "places an unfair

and oppressive burden on other stores and retailers who are not

provided the same advantages" as the retail giant.

Pepsi and attorneys for the restaurant owner did not

immediately respond to requests for comment. Walmart ( WMT ) also did

not immediately respond to a similar request. Walmart ( WMT ) is not a

defendant.

The lawsuit dusts off an old, rarely used law called the

Robinson-Patman Act, which was enacted in 1936.

The Biden administration's FTC sought to rejuvenate that

law, which curtails discriminatory pricing practices. The FTC

sued Pepsi in late January, but the second Trump administration

in May dropped the lawsuit.

In doing so, Trump-appointed FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson in

a statement criticized the lawsuit's timing, which came just

days before the end of the Biden administration. He called the

litigation a "nakedly political effort to commit this

administration to pursuing little more than a hunch that Pepsi

had violated the law."

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment

about the new private lawsuit.

The new lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages on behalf

of a nationwide class of Pepsi purchasers that was estimated to

be in the thousands.

The case is Michael Giannasca v. PepsiCo Inc ( PEP ), U.S. District

Court, Southern District of New York, No. 1:25-cv-06440.

For plaintiff: Thomas Burt of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman

& Hertz, and Joseph Marchese of Bursor & Fisher

For defendant: No appearance yet

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