Koch Foods offers settlement in suit filed by growers

Koch Foods has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought against it by broiler chicken growers who allege that the company unlawfully conspired to artificially reduce the amounts they paid to raise chickens for Koch Foods.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Courtesy Hubbard)
(Courtesy Hubbard)

Koch Foods has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought against it by broiler chicken growers who allege that the company unlawfully conspired to artificially reduce the amounts they paid them to raise chickens for Koch Foods.

The proposed settlement was announced in the form of a press release, issued by Angeion Group, a firm that provides comprehensive settlement management services for class actions, mass tort, and bankruptcy administration.

According to the press release, Koch Foods has not admitted any wrongdoing, but has offered to pay $15.5 million into a settlement fund to settle the class action antitrust lawsuit. The company also allegedly has offered to provide certain cooperation to plaintiffs in this litigation against the remaining defendants in the case.

Two other broiler integrators, Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms, have offered to settle in the litigation, with Tyson agreeing to pay a $21 million settlement, and Perdue agreeing to pay $14.75 million.

A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for October 28, 2022, in which a decision is expected to be made concerning whether to approve the settlement, grant the requested attorneys' fees of up to one-third of the gross settlement amount, litigation expenses not to exceed $3,000,000 and the proposed plan of allocation and distribution. The hearing will be held in the United States District Court for the District of Oklahoma, in Muskogee.

The hearing will also be held via Zoom, according to the press release.

The initial lawsuit was filed in 2020, in which plaintiffs say the alleged scheme put small growers in a position where they either had to take non-competitive prices for their products or face financial ruin because of the high costs in setting up operations that meet the specifications required by the integrators.

Other plaintiffs identified in the litigation are Pilgrim’s Pride and Sanderson Farms.

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