U.S. District Court Judge Owen Panner handed Pacific Seafood a big victory Tuesday in the anti-trust lawsuit against the Clackamas-based fish-processing giant.
Panner rejected a request from the plaintiffs — Southern Oregon commercial fishermen Lloyd and Todd Whaley — for a preliminary injunction prohibiting Pacific Seafood from communicating with Ocean Gold, an allied processor in Westport, Wash., about how much to pay for whiting and which boats to buy from.
Further, Panner said the plaintiffs' attorney, Mike Haglund, failed to prove that Pacific has used its huge market share to suppress prices paid to fishermen.
"The evidence presented… does not support plaintiffs' allegation," Panner wrote in the ruling. "Instead, the evidence indicates that since 2006 defendants' combined operations have expanded the market for whiting. Each year since 2006 (other than 2009, when there was a worldwide recession), defendants have been paying fishermen significantly higher prices for whiting, with record prices paid in 2008."
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