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US: Georgia chicken firm pays US$2.25m to exit lawsuit

By  |  November 8, 2018

A Georgian chicken producer, has agreed to pay US$2.2. million to extract itself from a federal, class-action lawsuit alleging massive price fixing by the major players in the broiler industry, a conspiracy the plaintiffs say was aided by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

The settlement agreement is the latest development in one of a growing number of lawsuits targeting some of Georgia’s largest chicken producers. Lawyers behind the suits say their clients and consumers were harmed by a conspiracy to keep chicken prices artificially high for years despite declining costs by manipulating the “Georgia Dock,” a pricing index for whole chickens maintained for decades by the Agriculture Department.

The lawsuits target household names like Tyson, Perdue, and Pilgrim’s Pride, companies with large footprints in North Georgia’s chicken-producing region. The companies are the leading broiler suppliers, controlling 90% of the US$30 billion wholesale market that stretches around the globe.

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