A Seattle law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against four of the country’s largest meatpackers and a price forecasting service, alleging that the meat processors have suppressed the prices they pay for cattle and inflated the prices they charge consumers. Cargill, Tyson Foods, National Beef Packing Co. and JBS USA are named in the lawsuit along with Agri Stats Inc., reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota by the law firm Hagens Berman. The plaintiffs, a beef consumer in Wisconsin and one in Nevada, argue that the decoupling of the price of cattle and the retail price of beef is the result of price-fixing by the meatpacking companies, which boosted their profit margins in recent years.