Feedstuffs magazine reports:
Settlements have been reached in a turkey class action antitrust lawsuit filed on behalf of commercial and institutional indirect purchaser plaintiffs against defendants Agri Stats Inc., Butterball, Cargill Inc., Cargill Meat Solutions, Cooper Farms Inc., Farbest Foods Inc., Foster Farms, Hormel, Jennie-O Turkey Store, House of Raeford, Perdue and Prestage, according to a news release from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which is handling the current case.
The price-fixing lawsuit was originally filed in July 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by Carina Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of litigation funder Burford Capital, alleging the major U.S. turkey companies conspired to fix turkey prices. It was later transferred to the Northern District of Illinois.
The suit was filed after Sysco, a plaintiff in other antitrust cases against pork, beef and chicken producers, signed away rights to Carina Ventures in those cases as part of a settlement with Burford.
In the suit, Carina Ventures claims that Butterball, Cargill, Cooper Farms, Farbest Foods, Foster Farms, Hormel Foods, House of Raeford Farms, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Perdue, Prestage and Tyson Foods “fixed, raised, stabilized or maintained” the prices of turkeys sold in the U.S. beginning around 2008 and continuing at least through 2016 and that this was carried out through market reports provided by data analytics firm Agri Stats and its wholly owned subsidiary Express Markets International Inc.
The lawsuit alleges the turkey processor defendants and their co-conspirators entered into an agreement to exchange competitively sensitive and non-public information about production plans and pricing data through Agri Stats and Express Markets to limit supply and increase prices in the turkey market, according to the Illinois district court’s news release. The court has not decided whether the defendants did anything wrong, and the defendants deny any wrongdoing.
Cargill has reached a $4 million settlement in this current case, and Cooper Farms and Farbest Foods have each reached separate $562,500 settlements in the lawsuit, according to the Illinois district court. In addition to these monetary payments, settling defendants agreed to certain non-monetary relief.
The court said the certified classes defined below apply to the Cooper Farms, Farbest Foods and Cargill settlements:
Injunctive class – Includes all entities in the indirect purchaser states that indirectly purchased fresh or frozen, uncooked turkey breast, ground turkey or whole bird turkey products sold by defendants in the U.S. during the class period of Jan. 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2016, for their own use in commercial food preparation.
Damages class – Includes all entities in the indirect purchaser states that indirectly purchased fresh or frozen, uncooked turkey breast, ground turkey or whole bird turkey products sold by defendants in the U.S. during the class period of Jan. 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2016, for their own use in commercial food preparation.
The indirect purchaser states are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Washington, D.C., Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
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