Walmart Inc. has filed suit against the U.S. poultry industry for alleged price collusion and violation of antitrust laws. Essentially the entire poultry processing industry was named as defendants in the suit filed May 24th in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Tyson Foods, Simmons Foods and George’s Inc. and Northwest Arkansas based businesses that each serve Walmart on some level were omitted from the suit which does name all their competitors such as Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, OK Foods, Koch Foods, Perdue Farms, Peco Foods and Wayne Farms along with seven other U.S. chicken companies.

The 98-page complaint seeks judgments against the defendants for an amount to be determined at trial. The retail giant is also asking defendants to pay the plaintiff’s legal fees and litigation costs as the law provides. The complaint claims the chicken industry shared confidential information and conspired to destroy flocks, close plants, and cut back on production overall to raise chicken prices as much as 50% during a 10-year period from the cyclical lows of 2008.       MORE