A lawsuit that accuses the top pork companies in the United States of conspiring to limit the supply and inflate prices was dismissed by a federal judge on August 8.
The suit was filed in 2018 and accused pork processors Tyson Foods, Hormel Foods, Smithfield Foods, JBS, Clemens Foods, Seaboard Foods, Triumph Foods and Indiana packers, as well as AgriStats, of sharing private information and limiting production. The plaintiffs alleged that such collusion dated as far back as 2009.
According to a report from Reuters on the KFGO website, Chief Judge John Tunheim, dismissed the case in the federal court in Minneapolis, stating that the plaintiffs failed to show “parallel conduct” among the defendant companies, which are responsible for more than 80 percent of the country’s pork supply. He also called their allegations of illegal activity “sparse and conslusory,” adding that pork output in the United States had actually increased during the period of alleged collusion.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Hormel Foods stated it was “confident that any allegations such as these are completely without merit,” and that the company would “vigorously defend this lawsuit.”
The suit was dismissed without merit, which means the plaintiffs can amend the complaints. Brian Clark, an attorney for some of the plaintiffs, informed Reuters his clients expect to amend their complaints.
The recently dismissed lawsuit is similar to ones filed against the nation’s top poultry companies. Two companies – Tyson Foods and JBS – were named as defendants in lawsuits involving both the pork and poultry industries. JBS is the majority owner of Pilgrim’s Pride, the second largest poultry company in the United States. Tyson Foods is the nation’s largest poultry company.
In June, the federal government filed a motion to intervene in cases where plaintiffs alleged the nation’s top poultry companies conspired to inflate prices. In a related filing, a federal judge was asked to halt certain depositions and discovery for six months to “protect the grand jury’s investigation.”
