U.S. retail company Winn-Dixie Stores and former Bumble Bee Foods owner Lion Capital have jointly moved to dismiss a long-running lawsuit related to a canned tuna price-fixing case.
Multiple large canned tuna companies were accused by the U.S. government of a price-fixing conspiracy in the early 2010s – including StarKist, Bumble Bee Foods, and Chicken of the Sea. The government claimed the companies deliberately fixed prices on canned tuna nationwide in a case that stemmed from whistleblowing by Chicken of the Sea and resulted in criminal charges and convictions, a guilty plea by Bumble Bee, and a class-action lawsuit that was filed in 2015.
That class-action lawsuit has continued to wind its way through the court system since being split into four tracks in 2019. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California approved a swath of settlement agreements related to the case in November 2024, which according to filings, ended up costing Bumble Bee and its former owner Lion Capital, along with StarKist and its owner Dongwon Industries, over USD 200 million (EUR 171 million).
That settlement covered direct-purchaser plaintiffs including Olean Wholesale Grocery, Pacific Groservice, Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Co., Central Grocers, Trepco Imports and Distribution, and Benjamin Foods – but did not include Winn-Dixie Stores.
Now, after a series of settlement conferences between the companies, Winn-Dixie has reached some form of agreement with Lion Capital – though the joint motion and stipulation of dismissal does not reveal any details. Both companies said they would bear their respective fees and costs related to the decade-long lawsuit.
The motion would still need to be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Dana M. Sabraw, who has overseen multiple settlements related to the price-fixing lawsuit.
Lion Capital has so far had to pay out millions of dollars to various plaintiffs and legal counsels. In 2024, Sabraw approved USD 71 million (EUR 60 million) in attorney fees for the direct-purchase plaintiffs, a portion of which was paid by Lion Capital. Lion Capital also paid USD 6 million (EUR 5.1 million) in cash to end-payer plaintiffs, as well as USD 6 million (EUR 5.1 million) to direct-purchaser plaintiffs.
Lion Capital purchased Bumble Bee in 2010 for USD 980 million (EUR 841 million). The company later considered a sale of Bumble Bee to Thai Union, but Thai Union Group announced in December 2015 that the two companies agreed to mutually terminate the aquisition. Bumble Bee ultimately ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was then purchased by Fong Chun Formosa (FCF) Fishery Company for USD 928 million (EUR 796 million) in early 2020.
