Lawsuit Alleges Meatpacker Conspiracy

The nation's largest meatpacking companies conspired to unlawfully depress fed-cattle prices paid to ranchers starting in 2015, a national cattle group alleges in a new class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Illinois on Tuesday. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) filed the lawsuit on behalf of four cattle-feeding ranchers in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Wyoming.The lawsuit alleges the nation's largest meatpacking companies engaged in fed-cattle price fixing, unjustly enriched their businesses, manipulated the prices of fed cattle and as a result the Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures and options, and committed a number of violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, among other allegations.