McDonald’s sues four beef producers for price-fixing, FT reports

McDonald’s (MCD) has sued four of the biggest beef producers in the US, including Cargill, JBS, National Beef and Tyson Foods (TSN), alleging the producers conspired to drive up the price of meat paid by company, Gregory Meyer of The Financial Times reports. The lawsuit was filed in the federal court in New York and follows similar litigation brought by cattle ranchers, supermarkets, and federal probes. In the civil lawsuit, McDonald’s claimed the meatpackers and co-conspirators “engaged in a contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce” in violation of the antitrust law in order to sell prices “artificially higher than beef prices would have been in the absence of their conspiracy.”