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Ohio sues Cargill and Morton Salt for rigging bids for rock salt

By  |  March 22, 2012

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has filed a complaint against Cargill and Morton Salt for bid-rigging and thereby inflating prices of rock salt used to de-ice roads. The complaint alleges that the two companies conspired to reduce bidding competition between themselves, thus forcing public entities to pay more for rock salt. Manipulating bidding competition is assisted by state legislation that gives preference to Ohio-based products when there are at least two bidders–Cargill and Morton Salt are Ohio’s only two rock salt miners.Cargill has denied Ohio’s allegations; Cargill spokesman Mark Klein pointed out that a similar lawsuit brought by Erie County in Ohio had a similar lawsuit against the company dismissed in 2011.

By way of damages, Ohio seeks an injunction and disgorgement of illicit profits amounting to $50 million.

Full content: Chicago Tribune

 

Related content: Mexican Experience in Screens for Bid-Rigging (Carlos Mena-Labarthe, Comisión Federal de Competencia de Mexico)