JBS USA has reached a deal to avoid a trial on price-fixing in its pork business.
It made the deal with pork buyers who filed a lawsuit complaining that JBS rigged the prices it charged them.
The proposed settlement of claims against JBS is subject to the court's approval. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed in the joint notice of settlement filed in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota.
Judge John R. Tunheim of the U.S. District Court last month denied a request by pork processors to dismiss the antitrust litigation, ruling that amended complaints by the plaintiffs “adequately pleaded a continuing violation” of price manipulation.
The defendants include Agri Stats, Clemens, Hormel, JBS USA, Seaboard, Smithfield Foods, Triumph and Tyson Foods in a consolidation of three class-action filings alleging illegal price fixing of pork since at least 2009.
