Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti Announces Proposed Settlement in Agri Stats Antitrust Case

Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti Announces Proposed Settlement in Agri Stats Antitrust Case

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined the U.S. Department of Justice and a bipartisan coalition of states in announcing a proposed settlement with Agri Stats, Inc. resolving allegations that the company illegally drove up prices of chicken, pork, and turkey for consumers.

In 2023, Tennessee joined the Department of Justice and other states in filing an antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuit alleged that Agri Stats organized and managed anticompetitive information exchanges among broiler chicken, pork, and turkey processors by collecting and distributing detailed non-public pricing, cost, labor, and production data among competitors.

Today's proposed settlement would prohibit Agri Stats from continuing many of the practices challenged in the lawsuit and impose significant safeguards designed to restore competition, lower prices, and increase transparency in meat markets.

"Tennessee consumers pay more than enough for groceries without companies illegally raising prices even higher," said Attorney General Skrmetti. "I'm glad we can hold Agri Stats accountable and work to restore competition to the chicken, pork, and turkey markets to help lower prices for shoppers. Companies that try to get away with illegal information sharing through new technology need to know that we're onto them and we're not going to let them rip off consumers."

If approved by the Court, the settlement will require Agri Stats to stop sharing non-public pricing information and detailed company- or facility-level production and cost data among meat processors. The agreement will also require Agri Stats to make much of its market information broadly available to purchasers on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, establish a robust antitrust compliance program, and submit to oversight by a court-approved monitor.

The original lawsuit alleged that Agri Stats' information exchanges gave participating meat processors near-total visibility into competitors' operations, enabling coordinated pricing and output decisions that harmed consumers through higher food prices. These participating processors accounted for a substantial majority of broiler chicken, pork, and turkey sales in the United States.

Tennessee joined the litigation alongside the states of California, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

The proposed settlement remains subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota following a public comment period.

Read the proposed final order. [LINK]

Read the Stipulation and Order. [LINK]