A McDonald's restaurant in San Diego, Calif., on March 31, 2015.Mike Blake/Reuters
McDonald’s MCD-N has sued JBS, Tyson Foods and other leading meat processing and packing companies for allegedly conspiring for years to limit beef supplies, boosting their profits while causing the fast food giant to pay artificially higher prices.
McDonald’s said in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Brooklyn federal court that the meatpackers, also including Cargill and National Beef Packing, collectively reduced their output to drive up industry prices since 2015.
The lawsuit is the latest to accuse the world’s largest meatpackers of violating U.S. antitrust law by coordinating on the price they paid for cattle and on slaughter volumes.
“Only colluding meatpackers would expect to benefit by reducing their prices and purchases of slaughtered cattle because they would know that their conspiracy would shield them from the dynamics of a competitive marketplace,” McDonald’s said in its lawsuit.
JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit on Monday. McDonald’s had no immediate comment.
The meat producers have denied any wrongdoing in related cases that have been consolidated in Minnesota federal court. The plaintiffs in those cases include BJ’s Wholesale, Sodexo, Target and Aldi.
The beef meatpackers also face lawsuits from U.S. consumers, cattle producers and others that are seeking class-action status and monetary damages in the Minnesota litigation.
Cattle producers who said they sold animals directly to the meatpackers for slaughter said they lost billions in the alleged scheme, court records show.
McDonald’s has 13,000 branded restaurants in the United States, part of its 39,000 restaurant global footprint in more than 100 countries.
McDonald’s said it was seeking unspecified monetary damages and a court to order an end to the alleged price-fixing conspiracy.
U.S. District John Tunheim in Minneapolis is overseeing the coordinated beef antitrust legal proceedings.
In the first settlement, JBS said in 2022 it would pay $52.5-million to resolve some of the purchasers’ class action claims.