Minnesota Joins Lawsuit Against Meat Industry Data Company, Alleging Price and Wage Fixing

(KNSI) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced he is joining a bipartisan coalition of states in an antitrust lawsuit against a data services company accused of facilitating widespread price and wage fixing in the meat industry.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleges Agri Stats, Inc. collected, integrated, and distributed competitively sensitive information related to price, cost, and output among competing meat processors. The lawsuit claims that information sharing resulted in higher prices for consumers. Plaintiffs say for years, Agri Stats produced comprehensive weekly and monthly reports for participating meat processors, which use the data to set prices and output levels.

Spanning hundreds of pages, prosecutors say those reports contain recent data relating to sales prices, costs, such as worker and farmer compensation, and output often detailed by facility or company. Participating processors have accounted for more than 90% of broiler chicken sales, 80% of pork sales, and 90% of turkey sales in the United States.

Ellison says he believes Agri Stats knew meat processors used those reports for anticompetitive purposes and, in some instances, even encouraged meat processors to raise prices and reduce supply.

“Minnesotans should be able to trust that they are getting a fair price for the food they buy to feed themselves and their families,” Attorney General Ellison said. “But Agri Stats’ illegal information sharing makes it harder for people to afford their lives by helping big meat processors coordinate with one another to keep food prices artificially high. We are suing to stop this anticompetitive behavior and keep the prices you see at the grocery store competitive.”

In addition to Minnesota, California, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.

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