An Illinois federal judge ruled that plaintiffs "plausibly alleged" a bid-rigging conspiracy among major broiler chicken producers, allowing key claims in an antitrust lawsuit filed in 2016 to proceed.
The chicken-processing companies are accused of conspiring to reduce supply and manipulate the Georgia Dock price index. The original lawsuit was later split into two tracks, one focusing on supply reduction and Georgia Dock claims, the other addressing bid-rigging allegations that emerged from a Department of Justice investigation.
The court previously granted summary judgment to some defendants in Track One, while others settled before trial.
In Track Two, plaintiffs alleged that producers exchanged price information to coordinate pricing and rig bids from 2011 to 2019. The judge found sufficient evidence of price-fixing coordination but dismissed claims against one defendant for lack of specific allegations.
The ruling allows bid-rigging claims, as well as related federal and state antitrust claims, to move forward.
According to court records, Pilgrim’s and Tyson admitted to participating in a criminal bid-rigging and price-fixing conspiracy involving KFC, with the court in the criminal case finding evidence of broader collusion among broiler chicken producers.
The plaintiffs alleged that these defendants, along with others, exchanged pricing information to manipulate market prices, arguing that all plaintiffs were involved.
Several companies, including Sanderson, Simmons, Wayne, Raeford and Case, challenged their involvement, but internal emails showed price-sharing communications, supporting plausible claims against them.
Reminds me that a lawyer once said the late Joe Hudson of Burnbrae Farms and Bill Gray of L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd. were foolish to put their communications into e-mails.
Those e-mails are being held by a lawyer in Waterloo, appointed by the court to keep them while an ancient lawsuit crawls its way towards trial. As with the the U.S. lawsuits, these ones outline conspiracies to fleece people.
