November 9, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY – Yesterday, Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes and five other attorneys general joined a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) lawsuit against Agri Stats, Inc. (Agri Stats), a company that organizes and manages anticompetitive information exchanges for meat processors across the United States. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, the amended complaint alleges that Agri Stats generates weekly and monthly reports with thousands of competitively sensitive data points for subscribing broiler chicken, pork, and turkey meat processors. Agri Stats’ reports, according to the amended complaint, are used by meat processors collectively to increase prices and reduce output, violating federal antitrust law.

“Meat processors should compete in a free market, not collude behind locked doors. For years, Utahns have paid too much for chicken, pork and turkey because Agri Stats throws gasoline on the fire of anticompetitive business practices,” said Attorney General Reyes. “This activity is illegal, harmful to our agriculture markets, and ultimately hurts Utah ranchers and families. It needs to stop.” 

The U.S. DOJ filed its original complaint against Agri Stats on September 28, 2023. With today’s amended complaint, Utah is joining the U.S. DOJ’s effort to end Agri Stats’ anticompetitive conduct. Together, the attorneys general and U.S. DOJ allege that Agri Stats violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Participating meat processors account for more than 90% of broiler chicken sales, 80% of pork sales and 90% of turkey sales in the United States.

In the amended complaint, the attorneys general assert that:

• Agri Stats’ information-sharing scheme hurts competition. Specifically, as part of Agri Stats’ “give to get” policy, subscribed meat processors share information about all aspects of their businesses with Agri Stats, including current costs, output, and prices. In exchange, Agri Stats audits and converts that information to common metrics that it distributes to subscribed meat processors in the form of weekly and monthly reports. Those reports enable meat processors to increase prices on items priced below their competitors with greater confidence that they will not lose sales to lower priced rivals. Meat processors pay Agri Stats millions of dollars for the reports.
• Agri Stats also goes a step further and tells subscribing meat processors how to use the weekly and monthly reports to weaken competition. Indeed, executives at some of the country’s largest meat processors testified that they could not recall any examples of their companies using Agri Stats information to lower their sales prices to gain market share.
• Agri Stats refuses to sell the weekly and monthly reports to meat purchasers, farmers, workers, or consumers, thereby strengthening the advantage that subscribed meat processors gain by sharing information only with one another.

Attorney General Reyes is joined by the attorneys general of Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas in filing today’s amended complaint.

Read the second amended complaint here.