The chicken-sandwich giant alleged in a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Illinois that top chicken suppliers, including?Tyson Foods?Inc., Pilgrim?s Pride?Corp.,?Sanderson Farms?Inc. and Perdue Farms Inc., coordinated pricing for meat supplies and collectively reduced production to push up prices.
Chick-fil-A is seeking unspecified damages and to recoup legal fees, according to the lawsuit. Representatives for Tyson and Perdue said that Chick-fil-A’s claims were unfounded and that the companies would contest them.
The lawsuit adds one of the U.S. poultry industry’s biggest customers to a four-year legal battle over alleged collusion among companies that produce the bulk of the roughly 37 billion pounds of chicken consumed annually in the U.S.
Major supermarket operators and food-service distributors have filed civil suits alleging anticompetitive behavior, and this year the U.S. Justice Department indicted senior chicken-industry executives and sales officials on criminal charges of bid-rigging and price-fixing. The defendants have pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, and major chicken companies are contesting the civil-court claims.
