Meat Processor JBS USA Agrees to $20M Settlement in Pork Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Case

UPDATE:

• A settlement website is now live as a resource for Class Members in the pork antitrust litigation
• A claims process has not yet been established.
• Top Class Actions will let our viewers know as soon as a claim form becomes available.

Meat processor JBS USA will pay $20 million to settle an antitrust class action lawsuit that accused the company of working with other companies to inflate pork prices for consumer indirect purchasers.

Indirect purchasers are those who purchase a product or service from someone other than the defendant or one of their alleged co-conspirators, such as a retailer or a wholesaler, according to Financial Recovery Strategies.

The class action lawsuit had alleged JBS USA and others conspired to fix pork prices beginning at least as early as 2009 and continuing to the present, according to Meat + Poultry.

The plaintiffs alleged Agri Stats Inc., another defendant named in the case, began providing sensitive, customized reports to pork integrators, allowing them to compare their profits with those of their competitors.

Allegedly, this exchange of information allowed the pork integrators to monitor each other’s production and control the supply and price of pork.

The Class is made up of “all persons and entities who purchased pork indirectly from any of the defendants or any co-conspirator, or their respective subsidiaries or affiliates, for personal use in the United States” from at least Jan. 1, 2009, through the date the Court grants preliminary approval of the settlement.

The settlement does not resolve claims made against the company by seven other plaintiffs that were not part of the agreement.

JBS USA and plaintiffs’ counsel began discussing a settlement in September 2020, Meat + Poultry reported. Those talks were unsuccessful, but after a judge declined to dismiss the case, discussions resumed in early 2021, and the parties reached the agreement earlier this month.

JBS USA controls about 20 percent of the consumer pork product market, according to Meat + Poultry.

“The $20 million settlement represents $1 million for each point of market share – putting the value of this case well over $100 million at this stage in the litigation,” the motion for preliminary approval reads. “This is an outstanding result.”

Are you an indirect purchaser of pork? What do you think of the JBS USA settlement? Let us know in the comment section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Gustafson Gluek PLLC.

The Pork Indirect Purchasers Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Pork Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 0:18-cv-01776, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

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