Federal Trade Commission probes whether formula makers and distributors illegally limited supplies in rural stores

At President Biden's request, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating formula manufacturers on Tuesday to discover their role in the nationwide shortage. The investigation will focus on whether corporate mergers contributed to the shortage by reducing competition, and whether manufacturers and distributors illegally kept formula from going to smaller retailers in inner-city and rural areas, Spencer Kimball reports for CNBC. "The FTC also asked the public to submit comments to a federal website about whether any state or federal agencies may have accidentally taken actions that contributed to the shortage."

"Discriminatory terms and conditions can exacerbate the inability of some grocers, pharmacies, and other stores to source products in short supply, impacting both rural and inner-city communities in particular," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement Tuesday.

Low-income rural parents are having an especially difficult time with the shortage. "When there are only one or two grocery stores in town, and when filling up the tank to drive from store to store to find formula — as many parents have been doing for weeks — is an economic impossibility, the need reaches a degree of intensity that is potentially life-threatening, Chabeli Carrazana reports for The 19th. "In rural swaths of the country, families are more likely to be living in poverty, more likely to be on WIC, more likely to face transportation barriers and less likely to have access to the retailers that carry baby formula."

Formula maker Abbott is expected to reopen its Sturgis, Mich., plant on June 4 and have some formula ready to ship by June 20. It could take six to eight weeks for formula to reach store shelves after that, Christina Jewett reports for The New York Times. Abbott is working with the Food and Drug Administration to remedy unsanitary conditions that led the FDA to shutter the plant in February.