AG: Washingtonians overpaid millions for chicken; $35M recovered in lawsuit
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says price-fixing by chicken producers led Washington residents to overpay millions of dollars.
As a result of a lawsuit filed in Oct. 2021, $35 million was recovered when 14 of the 19 companies named in the lawsuit paid to resolve the claims against them.
It is estimated that 90% of people — about 7 million — living in Washington buy products derived from the chickens the companies produce, from chicken breasts bought from a grocery store to nuggets bought at a fast-food restaurant.
The lawsuit says the 19 chicken producers drove up chicken prices since at least 2008 and that there is a “widespread illegal conspiracy to inflate and manipulate prices, rig contract bids, illegally exchange information and coordinate industry supply reductions to maximize profits.”
Three of the country’s four largest chicken producers — Perdue Farms, Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride — paid settlements.
The 14 companies that paid to resolve the claims are:
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. for $11 million
Tyson Foods for $10.5 million
Perdue Farms, Inc. for $6.5 million
Koch Foods Inc. for $1.4 million
Peco Foods, Inc. for $800,000
Mountaire Farms, Inc. for $775,000
George’s, Inc. for $750,000
Mar Jac Poultry for $725,000
Amick Farms, LLC for $600,000
Fieldale Farms Corp. For $475,000
Simmons Foods, Inc. for $425,000
Case Foods, Inc. for $395,000
O.K. Foods, Inc. for $375,000
Harrison Poultry, Inc. for $290,000
The remaining chicken producers named in the lawsuit are:
Foster Farms, LLC
Sanderson Farms, Inc.
Wayne Farms, LLC
House of Raeford Farms, Inc.
Norman W. Fries, Inc. d/b/a Claxton Poultry Farms, Inc.
A trial against those five companies is set for Oct. 2024.
Ferguson’s office said it is working on a plan to distribute money from the lawsuit to help those affected.