Cooperatives Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Producers will pay a combined US$34.4 million to resolve a class action price-fixing lawsuit.
Dairy Farmers of America will pay US$24.5 million and Select Milk Producers will pay US$9.9 million to settle allegations of conspiring to fix milk prices in Texas, New Mexico and other parts of the southwestern United States. The preliminary settlement, filed July 24 in federal court in New Mexico, requires a judge’s approval.
Dairy farmers who filed the lawsuit in 2022 said the two cooperatives underpaid them for the production of raw fluid Grade A milk, in violation of U.S. antitrust law. The lawsuit also accuses the cooperatives of unlawfully sharing pricing information and driving down take-home pay for dairy farmers. The settlement includes certain dairy farmers who produced and sold Grade A milk in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico from January 2015 through June 2025.
Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Producers have denied any wrongdoing.
