Fieldale seeks $2.25 million exit from chicken price-fixing litigation

Fieldale Farms has filed a motion asking a federal judge in Illinois to give final approval of its $2.25 million settlement with chicken buyers suing the nation’s top broiler companies for an alleged price-fixing scheme. As part of the “icebreaker” settlement, Baldwin, Ga.-based Fieldale Farms agreed to cooperate with the plaintiffs in their prosecution of the remaining 13 defendants, including industry leaders such as Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, and Perdue Farms. The plaintiffs, in turn, agreed to release claims against Fieldale Farms.The lawsuit filed in September 2016 by Falconer, N.Y.-based foodservice distributor Maplevale Farms claims the chicken processors manipulated poultry supplies to boost prices since 2008. The suit accuses the companies of working with market intelligence firm Agri Stats Inc. as a cartel, by sharing confidential information, including news on plant closings, hatching egg export levels and destroying breeder hens.Multiple similar lawsuits have been filed since Maplevale’s complaint, and they have been folded into what is referred to collectively as the “Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation” under the U.S District Court for Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.Fieldale’s settlement in the matter stipulates that the company will share documents it gave to the Office of the Florida Attorney General as part of its inquiry into the broiler industry’s possible anticompetitive conduct; produce Agri Stats reports, phone records, ESI and other documents; make five current or former employees available for interviews and depositions; and make an attorney proffer to describe the principal facts known to Fieldale Farms that are relevant to the alleged conduct at issue in the litigation.Fieldale Farms and the plaintiffs first entered into the settlement agreement in July 2017. Still pending before the court at the time were defendants' motions to dismiss.