Koch Foods and the four execs charged separately with participating in a nationwide conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products.
A planned merger of tuna companies Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee has been called off after the U.S. government signaled its opposition to the team.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday will release a new but stripped-down antitrust rule regulating meat companies that’s far less sweeping than initial reforms that ran into strong opposition from businesses and Congress.
The USDA said that if Congress does not provide enough money for enforcing a new, sweeping antitrust rule for meat companies, it will abandon portions of the rule.
