Attorneys for Kroger and Albertsons insisted the deal would boost competition by strengthening both companies as a unified company, repeated company promises to lower grocery pric

Key Takeaways The legal battle over the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to halt the $24.6 billion Kroger-Albertsons merger is scheduled to end Tuesday, with massive implications for the larger grocery industry.

During the three-week hearing, the two companies insisted that merging would allow them to lower prices and more effectively compete against Walmart and Amazon.

Whether Express Scripts wins its unique defamation lawsuit will depend on whether the PBM can prove the FTC made false statements. But winning the lawsuit may not be what the PBM is looking for.

Cigna's Express Scripts filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a federal report that places the blame for rising drug prices on pharmacy benefit managers, describing it as "seventy-four pages of unsupported innuendo" and calling for a retraction.

As the FTC has increasingly prodded PBMs over their role in high drug costs, Express Scripts is fighting back by launching a lawsuit against the agency.