Another price-fixing lawsuit has been filed against major pork producers, this time by Sysco, the largest U.S. broadline foodservice distributor.
Tyson Foods, Hormel Foods, JBS USA and others were named in the suit, docketed March 9 in Houston federal court. It charges that they exchanged data about prices, production levels and other sensitive information through the Agri Stats news service, which is also a defendant in the lawsuit.
As a result, the suit charges, Sysco paid prices for pork that “exceeded the amount it would have paid if the price for pork had been determined by a competitive market.”
The suit is similar to one filed previously in Minneapolis federal court. A tentative settlement in that case was approved in October that would cost JBS $24.5 million.
