Farmers Ask Judge to Reconsider Milk Price-Fixing Class Action Settlement

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Dairy Farmers are asking a Vermont federal judge to reconsider granting final approval to a $50 million class action settlement with Dairy Farmers of America Inc. to resolve a class action lawsuit over an alleged milk pricing conspiracy.

The Dairy Farmers told the court that this new proposal addresses the concerns that some of the Class Members had in the previous deal.

U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss refused to grant final approval to the class action settlement in April, saying that it wasn’t in the best interest of the class. While she said that “$50 million is on its face” not “inadequate or unreasonable,” she added that “the receipt of approximately $4,000 per dairy farm could reasonably be perceived as a modest recovery.”

A group of about three dozen farmers said they objected to the antitrust class action settlement with Dairy Farmers of America and Dairy Marketing Services because the $4,000 they will receive will be enough to purchase a new “tractor tire,” making it “functionally irrelevant.”

The dairy farmers say that their new proposal addresses the concerns of the objectors, saying that they have narrowed and further restricted the criteria for benefitting from this milk price-fixing class action settlement, which were concerns of Judge Reiss in her previous denial.

The farmers also pointed out that while there were some objectors, that 7,550 farms of 8,859 filed claims to receive benefits from this class action settlement.

The subclasses claim that the objectors, which included some of the class representatives, were campaigning to acquire more objectors by telling some of the Class Members not to “sell out.”

“Even after this scorched-earth campaign for the past year providing a very one-sided and inflammatory critique of the settlement … only a tiny fraction of subclass members were moved to object, while 7,550 farmers opted to submit claims and overwhelmingly did so without expressing any objections or concerns,” according to the farmer sub-classes.

The class action settlement is supposed to mean the end of a class action lawsuit filed against Dairy Farmers of America, Dairy Marketing Services LLC, and Dean Foods, alleging that they engaged in a price fixing conspiracy with Kraft Foods Inc. and Land O’Lakes Inc. in an effort to hurt the competition in the Northeast for raw Grade A milk in that region.

A $30 million class action settlement was reached with Dean Foods, allowing them to end their portion of the class action lawsuit in May 2011. Kraft and Land O’Lakes were never named as defendants in the class action lawsuit.

Besides the $50 million class action settlement, Dairy Farmers of America are prohibited from retaliating against the farmers in any way.

The farmer subclasses asked the Vermont federal judge not to allow the class representatives’ objections to keep her from approving the deal, saying that what the objectors are seeking, they would never be able to get Dairy Farmers of America to agree to, and there is no way they would get what they are seeking were the class action lawsuit to go to trial.

The non-DFA/DMS subclass is represented by Robert G. Abrams, Robert J. Brookhiser, Gregory J. Commins Jr., Terry L. Sullivan and Danyll W. Foix of BakerHostetler and Emily J. Joselson and Lisa B. Shelkrot of Langrock Sperry & Wool LLP.

The DFA/DMS subclass is represented by Kit Pierson, Benjamin D. Brown, Brent W. Johnson and Emmy L. Levens of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, David A. Balto of the Law Offices of David A. Balto and Andrew D. Manitsky of Gravel & Shea PC.

The defendants are represented by R. Jeffrey Behm and Ian P. Carleton of Sheehey Furlong & Behm PC, Steven R. Kuney, Kevin Hardy and Carl R. Metz of Williams & Connolly LLPand W. Todd Miller of Baker & Miller PLLC.

The Dairy Farmers Milk Price Fixing Class Action Lawsuit is Alice H. Allen et al. v. Dairy Farmers of America Inc. et al., Case No.  5:09-cv-00230, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.

UPDATE: On Feb. 8, 2016, a federal judge approved a $50 million settlement that will resolve claims by farmers alleging that Dairy Farmers of America Inc. and Dairy Marketing Services LLC engaged in a milk price-fixing conspiracy.

UPDATE 2: The Dairy Farmers class action settlement is now open!Click here to filea Claim Form or visit

 www.NortheastDairyClass.com for more details.