Tyson, others accused of price-fix plot

CHICAGO — A second lawsuit has been filed against some of the nation’s largest poultry producers, alleging they have conspired to fix the price of broiler chickens for nearly a decade.

The complaint filed by Winn-Dixie Stores and its sister grocery, Bi-Lo Holdings, against Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Park Ridge, Ill.-based Koch Foods comes two months after a federal judge refused to dismiss a similar lawsuit against the three companies.

In the suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Winn-Dixie Stores and Bi-Lo Holdings allege the companies conspired to fix the price of chickens for nearly a decade, in part by “destroying” their own breeder hens and eggs to hamper production, according to a lawsuit. Since 2008, the coordinated production cuts have resulted in a roughly 50 percent increase in the price of broiler chickens — the most popular kind of chicken meat in the country, according to the lawsuit.

Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman called Friday’s case an “add-on lawsuit” and said it doesn’t “change the fact that these claims are unfounded because we’ve not done anything wrong.”

Maplevale Farms, a food service distributor based in New York, led a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago in 2016 that made similar allegations. A judge declined to dismiss the suit in November.