JBS USA has reached a settlement in a lawsuit that accused the company of conspiring to fix the price of pork, even as it was hit with another lawsuit accusing it of the same thing.
JBS agreed to pay $12.7 million to settle claims in a lawsuit brought by “indirect purchasers,” mostly restaurants who bought through a third party pork products originally produced by JBS. This comes on top of a $24.5 million settlement for direct purchasers in the same suit. Other defendants include Hormel Foods, Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods. JBS does not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement with indirect buyers.
Meanwhile, Nestlé Purina Petcare filed another suit on July 8 alleging pork price-fixing by JBS, along with Smithfield, Tyson, Seaboard Foods and others. As with other such lawsuits, it alleges that the defendants used a news service called Agri Stats – which is also named as a defendant – to keep pork prices high.
