Monday, October 4, 2021

Three poultry processors settle for price-fixing

Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride and Mar-Jac Poultry will pay $93.49 million to settle charges of price fixing, according to court documents from Northern District of Illinois.


Tyson will pay $42.5 million, Pilgrim’s Pride $44 million (plus $1 million for notice and settlement administration) and Mar-Jac $5.99 million.


The processors have also agreed to cooperate in any future prosecutions in the case against other poultry processors. 


Cooperation, the documents detail, include the following measures from Tyson and Pilgrim’s: depositions of up to three current/former employees; “best efforts” to produce up to three current/former employees as live witnesses for trial; and copies of discovery, proffers or cooperation, among other agreements. 


Mar-Jac has agreed to authenticate documents provided during the litigation and provide copies of written discovery and other formal documents.


There also a number of class-action lawsuits and some of them have also been settled for many millions of dollars, and there are similar lawsuits and criminal charges for pork price-fixing, also with some multi-million settlements made.