Ag Informer – McDonald’s files Suit

McDonald’s recently filed a lawsuit alleging numerous pork suppliers colluded to from around 2008 or early 2009 through the present to fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of pork.

The lawsuit alleges companies, including Smithfield Foods, Hormel Foods, JBS USA, Tyson Foods and JBS USA, implemented a “conspiracy” by all agreeing to restrict output and limit production “with the express intended purpose and expected result of increasing and stabilizing pork prices in the United States.”

According to the lawsuit, alleged co-conspirator Agri Stats, a statistical research and analysis firm, provide highly sensitive “benchmarking” reports that were unlike those of other lawful industry reports.

“Agri Stats gathers detailed financial and production data from each of the defendants, standardizes this information, and produces customized reports and graphs for the co-conspirators. The type of information available in these reports is not the type of information that competitors would provide each other in a normal, competitive market. Instead, the provision of this detailed information acts as the modern equivalent of the proverbial smoke-filled room,” the filing stated.

To read the entire report click here.