SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Consumer rights law firm Robbins Arroyo LLP announces that purchasers of pork products have sued major food companies for participating in an alleged nationwide antitrust overpricing scheme. The companies involved include: Clemens Food Group, Hormel Foods, Indiana Packers Corporation, JBS USA, SeaBoard Foods, Smithfield Foods, Triumph Foods, Tyson Foods, and Agri Stats, Inc. Affected brands include, but are not limited to: Ball Park Franks, Bosco’s, Craft Meats San Francisco, Hillshire Farm, Hormel, Jennie-O, Jimmy Dean, Lloyd’s Barbeque, Nathan’s Famous, SaraLee, Smithfield, SPAM, Steak-eze, Tastemakers, and Tyson.
View this information on the law firm’s Shareholder Rights Blog: https://www.robbinsarroyo.com/pork-anti-trust/
Pork Manufacturers Accused of Severely Overcharging Consumers for Nearly a Decade
According to the complaint, major meat companies, which control 80% of the $20 billion pork market, engaged in a scheme to fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of pork since at least 2009. In furtherance of their scheme, the companies coordinated their output and limited production, while exchanging detailed, competitively sensitive, and closely guarded non-public information about prices, capacity, sales volume, and demand. With this information, the pork industry’s top players dominated the market, effectively forcing out new competitors. According to prices published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the hog market year average price was at or below $50 every year between 1998 and 2009, before increasing to $76.30 per pound in 2015—an increase of more than 50 percent. As a result, consumers were forced to pay high prices for bacon, ham, hot dogs, and other pork products.
Pork Distributors Have Legal Options
If you would like more information about your rights and potential remedies, contact attorney Leonid Kandinov at (800) 350-6003, LKandinov@robbinsarroyo.com, or via the information form on the firm’s website.
Robbins Arroyo LLP is a consumer and shareholder rights law firm that has helped its clients realize more than $1 billion of value for themselves and the companies in which they have invested.
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