Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is the latest person to accuse the top poultry companies in the United States of participating in a conspiracy to rig bids and inflate the price of chicken.
Ferguson announced on October 26 that he filed a lawsuit against the companies, as well as Agri Stats, asserting that the companies coordinated to reduce production during 2008-09 and 2011-12, resulting in significant high prices. He further asserted that the companies engaged in an illegal bid rigging scheme from 2011 to 2019.
“If you’ve eaten chicken in the last decade, this conspiracy touched your wallet,” Ferguson said in a press release. “This conspiracy cost middle-class and low-income Washington families more money to put food on their table. I will hold these companies accountable for the profits they illegally made off the backs of hardworking Washington families.”
The companies named in Ferguson’s lawsuit include: Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, Perdue Farms, Koch Foods, Mountaire Farms, Wayne Farms, Amick Farms, George’s, Peco Foods, House of Raeford, Fieldale Farms, Case Foods, Mar-Jac Poultry, Claxton Poultry Farms, Simmons Foods, O.K. Foods and Harrison Poultry.
Ferguson stated in his press release that while several class action lawsuits nationwide related to the alleged conspiracy have been settled, consumers in the state of Washington and institutional purchasers are not included in those settlements and were ineligible to receive funds from them.
The suit was filed as a trial is underway in which ten former poultry industry executives face federal antitrust charges related to similar allegations of conspiracy.
State assistant attorneys general Travis Kennedy, Christina Black and Linh Tran are handling the case, along with economic analyst Ryne Rohla, paralegal Tracy Jacoby and legal assistant Grace Summers from the Attorney General’s Antitrust Division.
Washington is not the only state to file such a lawsuit. In March, the Alaska Department of Law filed a suit, seeking more than $1 billion from 21 companies.
Ferguson, a Democrat, is in his third term as the state’s attorney general. He has been in office since 2013.
