McDonald’s suing Tyson, other beef producers over alleged price fixing

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — McDonald’s is suing Tyson Foods and multiple other beef producers claiming price fixing on their products.

The lawsuit, filed on October 4 in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, names Tyson, Cargill Inc., JBS, and Swift Beef Company along with others as defendants.

“By collusively underpaying suppliers for fed cattle, and over time reducing beef output, Defendants have been able to increase their margins and profits, confident that none of them would take volume from each other,” McDonald’s said in the lawsuit.

The complaint said the goal of price fixing was to raise the price of the beef sold to the fast-food chain at prices higher than they should have been.

The lawsuit did not specify when the alleged price fixing started but it does list that it started sometime in 2015 and continued after that.

McDonald’s said it bought beef products from one or more of the defendants, the world’s largest meat providers, between 2015 and the present day.

The complaint said meat packers sold around 80% of the 25 million pounds of beef to the U.S. market in 2018 and the companies controlled between 81% and 85% of the market-ready beef from 2015 to 2024.

McDonald’s said the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Justice have opened investigations into the alleged price fixing.

The defendants’ annual cattle slaughter was lower between 2015 and 2019 compared to the previous seven years when independent packer’s slaughter increased during the same period, the lawsuit alleged.

“Only colluding meatpackers would expect to benefit by reducing their prices and purchases of slaughtered cattle because they would know that their conspiracy would shield them from the dynamics of a competitive marketplace,” McDonald’s said.

None of the defendants mentioned in the lawsuit have responded as of Tuesday morning.

KNWA/FOX24 has contacted Tyson Foods for comment and is waiting to hear back.

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