BROOKLYN, NY. — McDonald’s Corp. filed a price-fixing lawsuit against several pork producers on Nov. 25 and is requesting a trial by jury.
The defendants named in the suit include Tyson Foods Inc., Smithfield Foods Inc., Hormel Foods Corp., JBS USA, Seaboard Foods LLC, Triumph Foods LLC, Agri Stats Inc. and Clemens Corp. Together, the companies compose approximately 80% of the wholesale pork market.
In the complaint, McDonald's alleges that the producers conspired from around 2008 or early 2009 to the present to “fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of pork.”
According to court documents, Agri Stats provided the pork producers sensitive information allowing the competitors to compare profits, prices, costs and production levels.
“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,” McDonald’s said.
The companies allegedly used Agri Stats’ reports to restrict pork supply and increase prices.
“As a result of Defendants’ unlawful conduct, Plaintiff paid artificially inflated prices for pork during the relevant period,” the complaint said. “Such prices exceeded the amount they would have paid if the price for pork had been determined by a competitive market, without Defendants’ anticompetitive behavior.”
McDonald’s seeks compensation for “suffered injury” and “damages” from the pork producers.