A federal judge in Chicago ruled Tyson Foods, Cargill, Hormel Foods, Butterball, and other top poultry processors must face retailer claims that they schemed to inflate the price of turkey, but Kraft Heinz Food is off the hook.
Greenlighting the antitrust lawsuit, Judge Virginia M. Kendall said it plausibly alleged a “hub and spoke” conspiracy involving illegal exchanges of sensitive information through Agri Stats, an Eli Lilly & Co. subsidiary that runs agricultural industry databases, reported Bloomberg.
She rejected the argument that the suit failed to satisfy the heightened specificity requirements covering fraud cases, saying its “language about deception” clearly “pertains to unfair business practices and not fraud.”
“Merely including allegations” of “secretive and deceptive behavior does not convert” an “antitrust claim into one sounding in fraud,” the judge wrote. “Many antitrust cases contain an element of concealment due to the very nature of the claims, but heightened pleading is not required.”
Kendall also let most of the suit’s state law claims move forward, though she did trim that part of the case, finding the unjust enrichment allegations too vaguely pleaded.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
Featured News
College Sports Leaders in Intensive Talks to Settle NIL Antitrust Case Against NCAA
Apr 30, 2024 by
CPI
EU Investigates Facebook’s and Instagram’s Handling of Disinformation Ahead of Elections
Apr 30, 2024 by
CPI
Antitrust Lawsuit Targets Hotel Giants for Alleged Price Fixing with AI
Apr 30, 2024 by
CPI
ABA Seeks to Join FTC Lawsuit Against Amazon Over Antitrust Concerns
Apr 30, 2024 by
CPI
Google Agrees to Pay News Corp for AI-Related Content
Apr 30, 2024 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Economics of Criminal Antitrust
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
Navigating Economic Expert Work in Criminal Antitrust Litigation
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
The Increased Importance of Economics in Cartel Cases
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
A Law and Economics Analysis of the Antitrust Treatment of Physician Collective Price Agreements
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI
Information Exchange In Criminal Antitrust Cases: How Economic Testimony Can Tip The Scales
Apr 19, 2024 by
CPI