A federal judge in Illinois has granted preliminary approval to the final two settlements involving direct purchasers in long-running turkey price-fixing lawsuits. It means court cases scheduled for October trial are not needed.
The lawsuits resulted in the recovery of $130.7 million from processing companies.
The final settlements were with Butterball, Hormel Foods Corp. and Jennie-O Turkey Store.
The direct-purchaser class alleged that some of the nation’s largest turkey producers conspired to inflate prices by exchanging competitively sensitive information.
