Antitrust Litigation in the Protein Markets

Allegations of collusion are prevalent in many of the major protein markets including beef, chicken, eggs, pork, salmon, tuna, and turkey. The sources of collusion, however, are different across markets. For some markets, like chicken and pork, the collusion was allegedly facilitated through information exchanges using Agri Stats, a data collection and sharing service. In other markets, the collusion was facilitated among parties within the market. There are allegations of collusion in the input markets for some proteins, the output markets for others, and some like chicken and beef have allegations in both. While many of these cases are ongoing, there have been a few cases where settlements have been reached or the courts have decided on a verdict. This introduction provides a snapshot of the many articles in our symposium that specialize on one protein market or another. We provide a brief review of each case, as well as emphasize the importance of this research given how substantial the protein markets are in the U.S.