In the latest legal development in the meat industry, Smithfield Foods agreed to pay restaurants and caterers $42M to settle a lawsuit that accused the meat producer of conspiring to inflate pork prices.
Lawyers began notifying companies affected by this latest settlement on Tuesday, according to Associated Press.
Smithfield settled with a different group of pork buyers for $83M earlier this year. Separately, JBS Foods agreed to pay the restaurants and caterers $12.75M in the pork lawsuit.
Nearly $200M of settlements have been approved in chicken cases, but lawsuits remain pending against other major pork producers like Hormel ( HRL ), Tyson Foods ( NYSE: TSN ), Seaboard Foods and Triumph Foods. In addition, the Agri Stats database company allegedly used to share confidential information about price, capacity and demand is a party to lawsuits.
The meat industry has tried to argue that supply and demand factors drive prices, instead of anticompetitive behavior.
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Meat industry continues to work through price-fixing lawsuits