 |
| CLICK HERE TO VIEW CURRENT ISSUE |
|
 |
|
SMITHFIELD SETTLES PRICE FIXING LAWSUIT FOR $42 MILLION
Jul. 7, 2022
CBS News reports:
Smithfield Foods will pay restaurants and caterers $42 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the giant meat producer of conspiring to inflate pork prices, which will likely only add to concerns about how the lack of competition in the industry affects meat prices.
Lawyers began notifying companies affected by this latest settlement Tuesday. Previously, Smithfield settled with a different group of pork buyers for $83 million, and JBS agreed to pay the restaurants and caterers $12.75 million in the pork lawsuit. Earlier this year, JBS also said it would pay $52.5 million to settle a similar beef price-fixing lawsuit.
Neither Smithfield nor JBS admitted any wrongdoing as part of those settlements, and officials at Smithfield's headquarters in Virginia declined to comment on the details of the deal.
Additional price-fixing lawsuits have also been filed against chicken producers, with nearly $200 million of settlements approved in chicken price-fixing cases to date.
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, one the nation's largest chicken producers, based in Greeley, Colorado, was fined $107 million after pleading guilty in February 2021 of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products.
To read the entire report click here.
|
|
|
|
|
