U.S. FTC moves Whole Foods hearing to September 8

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has rescheduled to September 8 an administrative hearing on Whole Foods Market Inc's (WFMI.O) purchase of former rival Wild Oats, a merger that took place last year but is still in dispute.

The FTC's objections to the deal were revived last month by a federal appeals court finding that a lower court judge had erred in declining to issue a preliminary injunction to block the deal.

The commission, one of two agencies that assess whether mergers violate antitrust law, originally set a scheduling conference in the case for August 18 but agreed in an order dated August 12 to a Whole Foods request for a postponement.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said July 29 that a district court judge erred when he turned down the FTC's request to block the deal.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman "underestimated the FTC's likelihood of success on the merits" when he denied the agency's request the appeals court panel said in its ruling.

The appeals court remanded the case back to Friedman for further proceedings. Meanwhile, the FTC has revived its own administrative case against the merger.

Antitrust experts say that while it would be hard to undo the merger, the case could be important in strengthening the FTC's hand in future cases.

The FTC had argued that the combination of Whole Foods and Wild Oats raised antitrust concerns in 21 geographical areas where the two chains were each other's closest competitors.

Whole Foods countered that its stores compete in a broader market against all supermarkets, not just organic grocery stores.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)