The owners of a restaurant in Maine are among 11 litigants that have filed separate lawsuits against Mowi, SalMar, and other Norway-based salmon farming companies, accusing them of a conspiracy to artificially raise the prices of their products.
Portland, Maine-based Portland Hunt + Alpine Club became the latest entity to file suit, entering a filing in federal court in Maine on 1 October. The suit, nearly identical in wording to other lawsuits filed in previous months, argues that while the cost of raising farmed Atlantic salmon have been stable in recent years, prices have gone up, even as production as increased.
Portland Hunt + Alpine Club’s filing brings the total number of separate lawsuits alleging price-fixing in the Norwegian farmed salmon sector to 11, though several have been dismissed, consolidated, or settled out of court.
Other restaurants that have sued and sought class-action status, as has Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, include Prime Steakhouse, located in Falconer, New York, sued in May, which also filed its suit in a federal court in Maine; and Washington, D.C.-based Bagels & Baguettes, which sued in April.
Wholesalers and seafood markets suing include Mentor, Ohio-based Euclid Fish Company, Schneider's Seafood & Meats of Cheektowaga, New York, having filed in April; Bensalem, Pennsylvania-based Hesh’s Seafood, which sued in May; Jacksonville, Florida-based Beacon Fisheries, which logged its suit in May; Howell, New Jersey-based The Fishing Line, filing in May; Miami, Florida-headquartered Cape Florida Seafood, which filed in May; and Sharon, Massachusetts-based Wood Mountain Fish, which filed in May.
Of those, the cases filed by Cape Florida Seafood, Hesh’s Seafood, The Fishing Line, Schneider's Seafood & Meats, Beacon Fisheries, Bagels & Baguettes, have been dismissed or folded into the Euclid Fish Company suit, which has become the de facto class-action suit for the direct purchaser class.
Additionally, one individual consumer filed suit on behalf of consumers in 27 states and the District of Columbia on 11 June. However, that suit was voluntarily dismissed on 26 June.
All of the suits contain similar details and verbiage, and all rely heavily on an ongoing investigation by the European Union. Michael Lehmann, a partner with San Francisco, California, U.S.A.-based Hausfeld LLP, which is the lead firm on the Euclid Fish filing, told SeafoodSource any findings from the investigation will likely play a major role in how the case is decided.
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