Senator Baldwin Calls for Investigation into Energizer Merger that Paved the Way for Wisconsin Plant Closures

Yesterday Senator Tammy Baldwin called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and conduct a retrospective analysis of the 2018 Energizer-Spectrum Brands merger, which has led to price hikes for consumers and threatened hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin.

Since the merger, Energizer has dominated the battery market, raising prices and announcing their plans to close two plants in Fennimore and Portage, laying off hundreds of Wisconsin workers.

Baldwin said “Revisiting this merger, on behalf of these workers and the consumers who now face higher prices, is clearly in the public interest and squarely within the
Federal Trade Commission’s authority to investigate mergers both before and after they are completed.

In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission unconditionally cleared Energizer’s acquisition of Spectrum Holdings’ battery business Rayovac, resulting in Energizer controlling an
estimated 40 percent of the United States’ battery market, 60 percent of the world hearing aid battery market, and 85 percent of the total battery market.