Pork Price-Fixing Claims Dropped by by Wawa, Subway and Others Amid More Than $50M in Settlements

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Pork Price Fixing Class Action Lawsuit Overview:

• Who: Restaurant and retail chains, including Wawa, Sonic, Jimmy John’s, Subway and Buffalo Wild Wings, have dropped claims against pork producer JBS USA Food Co.
• Why: The chains dropped their claims against JBS USA Food Co. after the pork producer settled allegations of anti-competitive behavior through several multimillion-dollar settlements.
• Where: The multidistrict litigation was being heard in a Minnesota federal court.

Restaurants, including Subway, Wawa and Buffalo Wild Wings, have dropped their pork price-fixing claims against JBS USA Food Co., after the pork producer made deals for more than $50 million in settlements with multiple groups. 

Eight restaurants and retail chains entered stipulations of dismissal with a Minnesota federal court Dec. 17, dropping their claims against JBS. 

The dismissals came after JBS reached settlements with a number of direct and indirect buyers, including a $12.75 million deal with commercial and institutional indirect buyers, a $24.5 million settlement with direct buyers and $20 million for consumer indirect purchasers, Law360 reported.

Pork Producers Manipulated Prices By Restricting Supply, Plaintiffs Claim

The restaurants first filed the class action lawsuit against JBS and others in 2018.

The plaintiffs, Restaurant Services Inc., Wawa Inc., CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., Sonic Industries Services Inc., Jimmy John’s Buying Group SPV LLC, Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., Subway Protein Litigation Corp. and Cheney Brothers Inc., alleged that JBS and other pork producers manipulated the price of pork by restricting supply.

The class action lawsuit alleged the defendants and others worked together and agreed to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price of pork products to drive up pork prices in the United States, violating federal and state law.

Data compiler Agri Stats Inc. was also accused of supplying information that ramped up prices.

Claims against other companies named in the lawsuit will continue even though claims against JBS have been dismissed. 

The $20 million JBS settlement with consumers includes any person or entity who indirectly purchased pork from any of the defendants or any “co-conspirator,” or their respective subsidiaries or affiliates, for personal use in the United States between Jan. 1, 2009, and Apr. 2, 2021.

JBS is the United States’ second-largest fresh pork producer, according to the company website. JBS has facilities capable of processing 92,000 hogs per day.

What do you think of the price-fixing claims against JBS? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by David B. Esau, Kristin A. Gore, Garth T. Yearick, Roger S. Kobert and Aaron A. Holman of Carlton Fields PA.

The Pork Price Fixing Class Action Case is In Re: Pork Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 0:18-cv-01776, in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota. 

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