On Aug. 18, 2026, a class of hundreds of millions of consumers filed a motion seeking final approval of a settlement with Agri Stats as part of a massive antitrust class-action lawsuit against chicken manufacturers controlling 90 percent of the U.S. wholesale broiler market, according to attorneys at Hagens Berman.

The settlements with data-sharing company Agri Stats contain significant reforms to prohibit future anticompetitive behavior in the protein industry. According to attorneys, the consumer class may be the largest ever certified in U.S. history, encompassing anyone who purchased raw fresh or frozen chicken products sold by any of the lawsuit’s defendants or co-conspirators.

“Our antitrust team is incredibly proud of the corporate reform possible through this class-action settlement with Agri Stats after 10 years of complex litigation,” said Shana Scarlett, partner at Hagens Berman representing the class. “Monetary relief will put hundreds of millions of dollars back into the pockets of consumers, and this injunctive relief will shield them from future anticompetitive behavior with major reform to this industry.”

Corporate Reform Through Class Action

According to today’s filing, “meaningful and immediate conduct reform” under the settlement will halt all sales reports containing SKU-level pricing information, and other pricing information will only be exchanged at an aggregate level.

“Agri Stats has agreed to adopt antitrust compliance training, removing the focal point flags in reports that caused economic concern,” the order states. “…the settlement corrects the core anticompetitive conduct challenged in this litigation…”

The order outlines a 15-point conduct reform process under the settlement, which includes the following changes to Agri Stats’ conduct and reporting, among other measures detailed in the 27-page order.

  • Retention of an experienced outside attorney with responsibility for antitrust compliance and annual employee antitrust compliance training

  • A written antitrust compliance policy and training which will:

    • Prohibit Agri Stats from disclosing to a competitor of a broiler subscriber any non-public information collected from a broiler subscriber other than the anonymized information disclosed in Agri Stats’ reports;

    • Prohibit any Agri Stats broiler report from containing actual competitor- or plant-level price or production volume data;

    • Implement data security measures regarding information shared when a broiler customer employee transitions between firms or to a customer firm.

  • Implementation of provisions protecting confidentiality of competitor data in Agri Stats broiler customer contracts.

  • Removal of all participant lists, averages, flags and other data points in broiler reports, and modification of reports to disclose certain plant-level data.

  • Removal of any forward-looking industry forecasts to broiler processors, including regarding how future industry production decisions might impact future prices or profitability.

  • Ending publication of any and all sales reports and price data for product categories that are not otherwise available to the public from EMI pursuant to the order.

About the Chicken Industry Antitrust Lawsuit

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 14, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division against a laundry list of defendants including Tyson and Perdue Farms, and unveiled an eight-year-long antitrust, price-fixing scheme that raised the price of 98 percent of the chicken sold in the U.S. by nearly 50 percent, according to Hagens Berman. Consumers accuse the major food conglomerates of killing hens, flocks and destroying eggs to limit production, stifling competition and leading to higher prices. The suit calls the industry’s means of destroying its livestock “unparalleled.”

The lawsuit describes in detail how the chicken industry conspired together to raise prices; producers did not rely solely on ordinary mechanisms to temporarily reduce production, which would have permitted production to be quickly ramped up if prices rose. Instead, producers cut their ability by destroying breeder hens, according to the lawsuit.

On March 13, 2026, Hagens Berman announced settlements with defendant Agri Stats, Inc. in the MDL, In re Broilers Antitrust Litigation, as well as tandem cases in the port and turkey markets, In re Pork Antitrust Litigation and In re Turkey Antitrust Litigation. The Honorable Thomas M. Durkin granted preliminary approval to the settlement on April 15, 2026. Once final approval is granted, injunctive relief will be implemented. Monetary settlements in the broilers class action have been reached with 13 defendants, totaling $203.35 million, and litigation is ongoing against remaining defendants.

Find out more about the broiler chicken price-fixing lawsuit.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs’ rights complex litigation law firm with a tenacious drive for achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. Since its founding in 1993, the firm’s determination has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of “Most Feared Plaintiff’s Firm,” MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

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