McDonald's files pork price-fixing lawsuit against US pork producers
Defendants include Tyson, Smithfield, Hormel, JBS and others
6 December 2022
1 minute read
By: On November 25, McDonald’s Corporation filed a price-fixing lawsuit against eight major US pork producers.
Defendants in the price-fixing case include: Agri Stats Inc., Clemens Corp. Hormel Foods Corp., JBS USA, Seaboard Foods LLC, Smithfield Foods Inc., Triumph Foods LLC, and Tyson Foods Inc. The companies' estimated control over the wholesale pork market is 80%.
In the lawsuit, McDonald's accuses the above-listed producers of conspiring to "fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of pork... by agreeing with their competitors to restrict output and limit production with the express intended purpose and expected result of increasing and stabilizing pork prices in the United States."
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of exchanging detailed, competitively sensitive and closely guarded non-public information about prices, capacity, sales volume and demand through their co-conspirator, Agri Stats.
"The type of information available in these reports is not the type of information that competitors would provide each other in a normal, competitive market," the lawsuit said. "Instead, the provision of this detailed information acts as the modern equivalent of the proverbial smoke-filled room. Rather than meeting in a room with pen and paper, Agri Stats collected Defendants’ competitively sensitive supply and pricing data and intentionally shared that information through detailed reports it provided to them."
McDonald’s is seeking compensation for damages and suffered injury. The corporation demands a trial by jury.
