Another major grocer files lawsuit alleging tuna price-fixing

Just as Kroger, Albertsons and Hy-Vee did before it, major U.S. grocer Wegmans has also now filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the “Big Three” tuna canners colluded in a price-fixing conspiracy.

Filed on 12 January, the lawsuit targets Bumble Bee Foods, Tri-Union Seafoods LLC (which owns Chicken of the Sea International) and StarKist Company, claiming that the canners conspired to “fix, raise, inflate, maintain or stabilize prices of packaged tuna including canned tuna and other shelfstable tuna products sold in pouches or other ready-to-eat packaging in the United States,” according to the court documentation.

The price fixing began in 2010, Wegmans alleged. The grocer claims that the companies have had numerous opportunities to collude, such as during trade conferences including Infofish Tuna 2014, the 13th Infofish World Tuna Trade Conference & Exhibition.

Wegmans also highlighted in the lawsuit the fact that the companies hold memberships to four of the same Regional Fishing Management Organizations: the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, National Fisheries Institute Tuna Council, the Fishery Council of Canada and the U.S. Tuna Foundation.

Read up on the suits filed by Kroger, Albertsons and Hy-Vee here: http://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/albertsons-and-kroger-follow-suit-allege-tuna-price-fixing

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