Following a recent agreement to settle claims made against it in antitrust lawsuits, Agri Stats has made modifications to the benchmarking reports it provides.
In mid-March, it was announced that the company agreed to settle a trio of lawsuits in which the plaintiffs alleged it conspired with processors of chicken, pork and turkey to raise the prices of those protein products. The lawsuits were filed in 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Agri Stats agreed to settle but did not admit to any wrongdoing.
After the settlement, Justin Bernick, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells who represented the company, issued the following statement on behalf of Agri Stats: "We are pleased that these settlements will allow Agri Stats to focus more attention on what really matters — the benchmarking reports that help broiler chicken processors maintain and improve the efficiency of their operations, ultimately keeping prices low for consumers."
Law360 on March 31 reported that as part of the settlement, Agri Stats agreed to substantially reshape its reports, including removing participant lists, stopping the sales reports altogether, aggregating critical plant-level fields and removing suspect fields.
When contacted by WATT Global Media after that Law360 report was circulated, Bernick said the earlier statement still stands and added, "While Agri Stats has made modifications to its reports, it will continue to provide the core benchmarking services that our customers rely upon to keep costs and prices low for consumers."
In addition to Agri Stats, the following companies were targeted in the lawsuit involving chicken producers: Claxton Poultry, Fieldale Farms, Foster Farms, George's, Harrison Poultry, House of Raeford Farms, Koch Foods, Mar-Jac Poultry, Mountaire Farms, OK Foods, Peco Foods, Perdue Farms, Pilgrim's Pride, Sanderson Farms, Simmons Foods, Tyson Foods and Wayne Farms. All of those companies have since settled.
Other defendant companies in the turkey-related lawsuit include Butterball, Cargill, Cooper Farms, Farbest Foods, Foster Farms, House of Raeford Farms, Hormel Foods, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Perdue Farms, Prestage Farms and Tyson Foods. The court has granted preliminary approval to settlements from Cargill, Tyson Foods, Cooper Farms and Farbest Foods, law firm Hagens Berman, which represented the plaintiffs, said in a press release.
In the pork lawsuit, the defendants were Agri Stats, Clemens Food Group, Hormel Foods, Indiana Packers, JBS, Seaboard Foods, Smithfield Foods, Triumph Foods and Tyson Foods. Settlements with six of those companies have been approved by the court: Smithfield Foods, JBS, Tyson Foods, Clemens Food Group, Seaboard Foods and Hormel Foods.
