Minnesota Joins antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that Minnesota will be joining the United States and a bipartisan coalition of states in a civil antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats, Inc. for organizing and managing anticompetitive information exchanges among broiler chicken, pork and turkey processors.

The lawsuit against Agri Stats Inc. alleges that the company violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by collecting, integrating, and distributing competitively sensitive information related to price, cost, and output among competing meat processors, which resulted in higher prices for consumers.

Attorney General Keith Ellison said that “Minnesotans should be able to trust that they are getting a fair price for the food they buy to feed themselves and their families,” and that “A big reason why our paychecks aren’t covering as much as they used to is because corporate profiteers are manipulating markets to line their pockets and stifle competition. Agri Stats’ illegal information sharing makes it harder for people to afford their lives by helping big meat processors coordinate with one another to keep food prices artificially high.” 

The lawsuit, filed in the District of Minnesota, alleges that Agri Stats has for years produced comprehensive weekly and monthly reports for participating meat processors, which use the data to set prices and output levels. The lawsuit also alleges that Agri Stats understood that meat processors have used Agri Stats’ reports for anti competitive purposes and, in some instances, even encouraged meat processors to raise prices and reduce supply. 

Parties involved in the lawsuit include the United States Justice Department, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the Attorney Generals of California, North Carolina and Tennessee.