US: Top three tuna companies allegedly conspire to fix US tuna prices

The “oligopolistic structure” of the nation’s three largest packed-seafood companies – StarKist, Bumble Bee and Tri-Union – helps them conspire to fix tuna prices, a class of wholesalers claim.

Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative filed the federal complaint Monday against Bumble Bee Foods, Tri-Union Seafoods and StarKist. Tri-Union, the only name that may be unfamiliar to U.S. consumers, sells its canned fish under the trade name Chicken of the Sea. The complaint is the Top Download for Courthouse News today.

Since at least July 24, 2011, Olean Wholesale claims, the food giants conspired to “fix, raise, maintain, and/or stabilize prices for PSPs [packaged seafood products] within the United States, its territories and the District of Columbia in violation Sections 1 and 3 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.”

The three companies control 73 percent of the U.S. market: Bumble Bee 29 percent, StarKist 25.3 percent and Tri-Union 18.4 percent, according to the complaint.

Packed seafood was a $2.3 billion U.S. market in 2011, $1.7 billion of it tuna, Olean Wholesale says, citing a Bumble Bee report.

Full content: Courthouse News Service

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