Tuesday, November 29, 2022

McDonald’s sues pork packers over pricing

McDonald’s Corp. is accusing eight companies of conspiring to fix pork prices over the last 14 years in a lawsuit filed Friday in New York.

The Chicago-based fast food giant claims that the companies “entered into a conspiracy … to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price of pork” and associated pork products beginning in 2008 through the present, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York. 


McDonald’s alleges that the defendants also worked together to “restrict output and limit production with the express intended purpose of increasing and stabilizing the price of pork” across the country.


The defendants include: Agri Stats Inc., Clemens Food Group (Clemens Family Corp.), Hormel Foods Corp., JBS USA, Seaboard Foods, Smithfield Foods Inc., Triumph Foods, Tyson Foods Inc. (including two specific Tyson units — Prepared Foods and Fresh Meats).


The filing also lists Daily’s Premium Meats. Indiana Packers Corp. and Seaboard Triumph Foods as non-defendant entities that allegedly “combined, conspired or agreed" with the defendants and “committed acts in furtherance of the unlawful conspiracy alleged in the complaint.”