Pilgrim’s Pride has reached another settlement in a price-fixing lawsuit, this one for consumers who bought its chicken products over a roughly 10-year period.
Pilgrim’s Pride, majority-owned by JBS SA, is settling the federal class-action lawsuit for $76 million. After attorney’s fees, the money will go to consumers who bought Pilgrim’s Price chicken between 2009 and July 31, 2019. Contact information for 32 million such consumers has been furnished by retailers.
Another defendant, Mar-Jac Poultry, has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to consumers.
The suit, brought in 2016, alleges that Pilgrim’s Pride and other poultry processors conspired to keep the prices of their products artificially high, via both direct communications and data provided to a news service.
This settlement comes after Pilgrim’s paid a $75 million settlement in the same case for trade customers. Pilgrim’s also paid a fine of $110.5 million in a criminal case related to price-fixing.
