McDonald's is suing multiple meat companies on accusations they colluded to inflate the price of beef specifically. The fast food giant filed a federal complaint Friday against Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company, as well as their subsidiaries, alleging the companies engaged in a price-fixing scheme for beef.
agreed in 2022 to a $52.5 million settlement in a similar beef price-fixing lawsuit. A year earlier, Tyson agreed to pay $221.5 million over class-action claims that the company intentionally inflated the price of chicken. These settlements did not include admissions of wrongdoing. Meat processors have previously argued that larger supply and demand factors that are out of their control caused prices to increase and that they have not engaged in anticompetitive behavior.
But lawsuits like the latest one from McDonald's cite increased profit margins during the alleged time of collusion and argue that overall concentration of the market helps facilitate collusion. "Conspiracies are easier to organize and sustain when only a few firms control a large share of the market," the McDonald's lawsuit says. Data in recent years has showed that Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef control more than 80% of the U.S.