![]() Pilgrim’s Pride is a publicly traded company backed by JBS through a majority stake. Thanks to corporate consolidation, some of the beef and pork companies being sued have the same parent companies as the chicken processors. The trial and the chicken industry’s settlements could impact similar allegations of price-fixing and collusion among pork and beef processors. The law dictates a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million for individuals. ![]() The executives are charged with felony violations of the Sherman Act, America’s main antitrust law, which outlines severe criminal penalties to prevent price-fixing. Peter Carstensen, a professor of law emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison “Cartels make a lot of money, even after you deduct what they have to pay out for damages.” The executives also used data aggregators that shared proprietary information that, while anonymized, is easily reconstructed. In the criminal case, the Justice Department says that chicken executives aligned bids and promotional discounts through phone calls, text messages and in-person meetings between 20, as well as monitored co-conspirators’ bids. Hundreds of other lawsuits related to these claims will continue to play out in the court system for years. Six other chicken packagers have also settled, while more than 10 others continue to fight the charges. In January 2021, Tyson settled a class action over chicken for $221.5 million while denying wrongdoing. Tyson Foods, the country’s biggest chicken processor, also faces lawsuits over price-fixing and collusion. Without admitting guilt, Pilgrim’s Pride has also agreed to pay $75 million to settle similar charges with different class-action groups like McDonald’s, Walmart and other fast-food chains, distributors and retailers. antitrust laws,” a JBS spokesperson said. “We continue to cooperate with the government and remain focused on maintaining our commitment to fair and honest competition in compliance with U.S. Pilgrim’s Pride parent company JBS said that Pilgrim’s Pride resolved the issue with the government and that JBS is not a party in the current trial. In October 2020, Pilgrim’s Pride pled guilty to “a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition” in chicken sales and paid $107 million in a settlement with the Justice Department over price-fixing charges. The case is one result of a sweeping Justice Department probe into alleged antitrust violations in the meatpacking industry that’s looking at activity dating back to the early 2000s. ![]() “If the government can’t win a criminal conviction here, it will significantly decrease the probability of more criminal cases.” “Cartels make a lot of money, even after you deduct what they have to pay out for damages,” says Peter Carstensen, a professor of law emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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