The Alaska Department of Law will demand $50 million from each of 21 defendants alleged to have conspired to manipulate broiler chicken prices. According to a report from Bloomberg, Alaska will claim restitution, fees and legal costs.
The complaint filed by the state of Alaska alleges that “a cartel of corporations engaged in an illegal conspiracy to restrain production and manipulate pricing to artificially inflate the price of broiler chicken throughout the United States including Alaska.
The case entitled “Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation” has elicited settlements from Tyson Foods of $221 million, an undisclosed figure from Pilgrim’s Pride and at an early stage in litigation, from Fieldale Farms. Pilgrim’s Pride paid a criminal fine of $108 million and settled charges with the Department of Justice but the magnitude of the civil settlement has yet to be released.