Cargill has agreed a financial settlement in relation to a turkey price-fixing lawsuit, although the US agri-food giant has not admitted any liability.
In the case brought before the US District Court of the Northern Illinois Eastern Division, Cargill reached a “proposed” settlement with plaintiffs last week of $32.5m to be paid into an escrow account.
According to a court document, the so-called direct purchaser plaintiffs (DPP) had claimed Cargill, and its “co-conspirators”, had “conspired to fix, maintain and inflate the price of turkey in the United States by exchanging competitively sensitive information”.
One of the co-conspirators was US meat peer Tyson Foods, which agreed a settlement with the same court for $4.6m in 2021, which was finalised the following year, the court document states.
It added: “The settlement agreement is the second DPP settlement in this case. This Court granted final approval to DPPs’ ‘icebreaker’ settlement with the Tyson defendants on February 3, 2022.”
The case pertaining to Cargill and Tyson Foods, and reportedly other co-conspirators, dated back to 2019, according to a Reuters report, which identified the other companies as Butterball, Perdue Farms and Hormel Foods.
However, with respect to Cargill, the court document noted: “Cargill denies that it entered into an agreement to reduce or suppress competition in the market for Turkey with defendants and their co-conspirators.
“Indeed, Cargill maintains that it did nothing wrong. But in the interests of avoiding the risk and uncertainty of continued litigation, Cargill has agreed to settle.”
Just Food contacted Cargill and Tyson Foods for their assessments of the case and financial settlements, and has also approached Butterball, Perdue Farms and Hormel Foods for comment on the status of similar proceedings against them.
Hormel Foods responded by saying it "strongly denies liability and continues to deny the allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaints", adding that the company "believes it has valid defenses to the allegations".
Cargill has reportedly agreed to provide assistance to the plaintiffs in cases lodged against Butterball, Perdue and Hormel.
“In addition to monetary relief, Cargill has agreed to provide meaningful cooperation, which may assist DPPs in the prosecution of their claims against the non-settling defendants,” the court document read.
That assistance will include Cargill providing the plaintiffs with “declarations or affidavits regarding business record foundation for certain identified documents and live witnesses at trial”.
The document added that Cargill commands around 20-21% of the US turkey market, as “defined in the settlement class”, with a figure of 4-5% for Tyson Foods.
