Following a series of class-action suits alleging collusion in indirectly setting prices among poultry and pork producers, a lawsuit has now been filed claiming price fixing among the oligopoly producing French fries. Redner’s Markets is suing the four dominant processors of frozen potato products in a lawsuit filed on November 15th in the Northern District Court for Illinois. The plaintiff claims that Lamb Weston, McCain Foods, J.R. Simplot Company and Cavendish Farms colluded to fix prices on their products in violation of antitrust legislation. It is noted that the four defendants control 97 percent of the frozen potato market valued at $68 billion.
The complaint alleges that from 2021 onwards, the defendants raised prices concurrently amounting to an almost 50 percent increase from 2022 through mid-2024. The defendants’ conceded that input costs for potato products rose in 2022 during the post COVID inflationary period. Despite a claimed decline in cost thereafter it is alleged that prices were raised by all producers yielding “unprecedented margins”.
Evidence will be presented that managers of the companies involved, communicated by text avoiding E-mails and that policies existed that preventing disclosure of prevailing prices to upper management to allow for plausible denial of conspiracy.
If this case follows the precedent of the poultry and pork collusion lawsuits, prolonged litigation will ultimately result in a settlement. The plaintiff, Redner’s operates 40 grocery stores and 25 convenience stores in Pennsylvania and Delmarva and was a relatively small purchaser of potato products. Heavyweights including the QSRs and major supermarkets are sure to file individual lawsuits or create a class, given the magnitude of their purchases.