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Hormel Foods has agreed to pay over $11 million to resolve class-action lawsuits accusing the company of colluding with other pork producers to unlawfully manipulate prices and overcharge consumers, as per court documents.
Outlined in filings submitted to federal court in Minneapolis last week, the settlements, if approved by a federal judge, will allow the Austin, Minnesota-based food giant to conclude the legal proceedings without acknowledging wrongdoing.
Under the proposed agreements, Hormel will allocate $2.4 million for institutional clients such as restaurants and delis, $4.8 million for wholesalers and other direct buyers, and $4.4 million for consumers.
One of the settlements notes that the deal "offers compensation that will be accessible much sooner than if litigation against Hormel Foods proceeded to trial and beyond."
The lawsuits, initiated in 2018, contend that major players in the pork industry, controlling a significant portion of the national pork market, conspired to artificially limit pork supplies over several years to inflate prices, thus violating antitrust laws. Allegedly, these companies utilized data collected and shared by Agri Stats, based in Indiana, which was sued by the Department of Justice the previous autumn.
While the accused pork companies deny these allegations, several, including JBS, Tyson, and Smithfield, have collectively disbursed over $200 million to settle similar cases against them.