Dive Brief:
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The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats for allegedly sharing competitively sensitive information among pork and poultry processors to manipulate the markets.
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The complaint, filed in Minnesota district court, alleges that Agri Stats for years organized and managed anticompetitive information exchanges with meatpackers, who used the firm’s highly sensitive data to set prices and output levels to the detriment of consumers.
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An attorney representing Agri Stats strongly denied the latest allegations in a statement to Agriculture Dive. The individual said the Justice Department already investigated the company nearly a decade ago for broiler chicken price-fixing claims and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Dive Insight:
The Justice Department – citing Section 1 of the Sherman Act – said Agri Stats violated antitrust laws by “collecting, integrating and distributing competitively sensitive information related to price, cost and output” among major meat processors.
Agri Stats' reports span hundreds of pages and carry details such as sales price, worker compensation and output data that allows packers to monitor their competitors’ performances, according to the 68-page lawsuit.
The reports are published on a weekly and monthly basis, and have been used by Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill and others across the industry.
While distributing troves of sensitive information to participating processors, the Justice Department argued “Agri Stats withholds its reports from meat purchasers, workers and American consumers, resulting in an information asymmetry” that further exacerbates competitive harm.
The complaint alleges Agri Stats temporarily paused its turkey and pork reporting after facing several private antitrust lawsuits, but the scheme continues to this day for chicken.
“The Justice Department is committed to addressing anticompetitive information exchanges that result in consumers paying more for chicken, pork and turkey,” Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general with the department’s antitrust division, said in a statement.
The suit is the latest effort by the law enforcement agency to curb anticompetitive practices in the agriculture industry.
The Justice Department last year went after a data consulting firm and a number of chicken processors that allegedly conspired to suppress plant worker pay. That resulted in consent decrees from Cargill, Sanderson Farms, George’s and Wayne Farms to cease sharing sensitive compensation data.
The Justice Department also previously brought claims against four chicken industry executives for conspiring to drive up prices. Those charges were dismissed in 2022.
Agri Stats, established in 1985, has been named in several class-action, price-fixing lawsuits for allegedly helping meat companies influence the markets. The company has denied these claims, saying it has played a vital role in lowering consumer costs of chicken, pork and turkey.
“DOJ’s lawsuit threatens to unwind these benefits and cause further harm to Americans who already are struggling with inflated food costs,” Justin Bernick, a partner at Hogan Lovells representing Agri Stats, said in an email Wednesday.
Allegations claiming Agri Stats illegally distributed competitive broiler chicken data were dismissed by a federal judge in June. The court ruled the company’s benchmark reports were not inherently anticompetitive.
