Chicken firm pleads to price fixing
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., one of the top U.S. chicken producers, has become the first company sentenced to pay a criminal fine as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation into the industry by the Justice Department.
The JBS SA-owned firm pleaded guilty to conspiring with rivals to illegally prop up prices between 2012 and 2017, and will pay $108 million, the Justice Department said Tuesday. That adds to hundreds of millions of dollars in civil settlements that the chicken industry has already made.
The fines and payments are likely not over, a sign that the extreme consolidation that’s occurred in the chicken industry over past decades is starting to exact a cost. The investigation into chicken antitrust is ongoing, the Justice Department said,.
The chicken industry has also been embroiled in a class action lawsuit for years. Major buyers including Chick-Fil-A and Target Corp. have accused poultry companies of fixing prices. Pilgrim’s earlier this year said it would pay $75 million to settle with plaintiffs, while Tyson Foods Inc., America’s biggest meatmaker, said it would pay $221.5 million.
Pilgrim’s said the plea marks the end of the government’s investigation into the company.