In Re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation
Bernstein Liebhard represents one of the direct purchaser plaintiffs in the In Re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation, No.1:16-cv-08637 (N.D. Ill.). Plaintiffs allege that beginning in 2008, the defendants – a consortium of 17 poultry producers who controlled approximately 90% of the U.S. chicken supply – conspired to limit their production by instituting production cuts across the cartel members in order to fix and maintain artificially inflated prices for broiler chickens. This anticompetitive conduct, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, allowed the defendant producers to increase their profits on broiler meat, which constitutes 98% of all chicken sold in the U.S, to the detriment of consumers. The case is currently pending.