Second Lawsuit Against Poultry Giants Alleges Chicken Price-Fixing Conspiracy
January 16, 2018 | 1 min to read
A second lawsuit has been filed against some of the nation’s largest poultry producers, alleging they have conspired to fix the price of broiler chickens for nearly a decade.
The complaint filed by Winn-Dixie Stores and its sister grocery, Bi-Lo Holdings, against Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Park Ridge-based Koch Foods comes two months after a federal judge refused to dismiss a similar lawsuit against the three companies.
In the suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Winn-Dixie Stores and Bi-Lo Holdings allege the companies conspired to fix the price of chickens for nearly a decade, in part by “destroying” their own breeder hens and eggs to hamper production, according to a lawsuit. Since 2008, the coordinated production cuts have resulted in a roughly 50 percent increase in the price of broiler chickens — the most popular kind of chicken meat in the country, according to the lawsuit.
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