© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The word “justice” is etched at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC, U.S., May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
By Leah Douglas
(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit on Thursday against data company Agri Stats, alleging that its weekly reports on meat prices and sales have enabled anticompetitive practices in the chicken, pork and beef industries. turkey.
Meat companies such as Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods (NYSE:) have previously faced lawsuits from restaurants and other food buyers who allege they use Agri Stats reports to conspire to raise meat prices.
“Agri Stats operates its information exchanges to promote overall industry profits at the expense of competition,” the Justice Department complaint said.
Attorney Justin Bernick of the law firm Hogan Lovells, who represents Agri Stats in the Justice Department case, said the company denies the allegations.
“Agri Stats provides vital benchmarking services that help keep production costs and prices low for consumers,” Bernick said in an email.
Meat processors pay millions of dollars for Agri Stats reports that include “slightly anonymized” information on costs, production and prices, which the companies then use to align their prices with those of competitors, according to the Justice Department complaint.
In one example laid out in the complaint, Tyson Foods allegedly told its sales employees in January 2010 to use Agri Stats data to negotiate higher prices with retail buyers.
Tyson did not respond to questions about whether the company uses Agri Stats reports or provide comment on the lawsuit.
Companies that use Agri Stats reporting account for more than 90% of broiler, 80% of pork and 90% of turkey sales in the U.S., the Justice Department said in a statement. press.
