Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday confirmed a Justice Department investigation into major beef processors for potential antitrust violations and separately teased that the agency has neared a settlement…
DOJ Reaches Settlement with Agri Stats Over Meat Price-Fixing
Reuters’ Jody Godoy and David Shepardson reported that “the U.S. Department of Justice and six states settled their antitrust lawsuit against data company Agri Stats on Thursday in a move DOJ officials said would lower meat prices for consumers. The Trump administration is looking to make consumer foods more affordable as Americans grapple with the rising cost of living, including surging gas prices.”
“The DOJ in September 2023 alleged Indiana-based Agri Stats’ weekly reports on meat pricing and sales enabled anti-competitive practices in the chicken, pork, and turkey industries. The case was scheduled to go to trial this month,” Godoy and Shepardson reported. “Thursday’s settlement limits what data Agri Stats can collect, and requires it to offer its data not only to meat processors, but also to meat buyers like grocery stores and restaurants.”
“‘This Department of Justice is laser-focused on making everyday life affordable for all Americans,’ Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said,” according to Godoy and Shepardson’s reporting. “The Agri Stats settlement included California, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.” The settlement agreement must still be approved by the judge overseeing the case.
“Agri Stats President Eric Scholer said in a statement that the company was pleased to resolve the matter. He said its reports have helped chicken producers expand production and reduce costs,” Godoy and Shepardson reported. “‘It has not been easy for a small company to litigate against a massive government agency with unlimited resources, and we could not have achieved this outcome had our customers not stood behind us,’ he said.”
What’s Required in the Settlement?
Meatingplace’s Chris Moore reported that “under the proposed judgment, Agri Stats would be prohibited from offering sales report books and barred from reporting sales data except in limited circumstances, such as providing individual companies with their own data. The company also would be prohibited from revealing contributor identities, reporting company rankings or disclosing plant-level and business-unit-level information except under narrow conditions.”
“The settlement would require Agri Stats to make reports and manuals available for purchase to any person in the United States, including buyers such as grocery stores and restaurants, under terms no less favorable than those offered to meat processors,” Moore reported.
1 – The Department of Justice continues to bring affordability to the American people. Today, we announced a historic settlement with Agri Stats, whose business model directly raised the price of chicken, turkey, and pork in local grocery stores across our nation. 🐔🐖⚖️
— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) May 7, 2026
“The agreement also imposes confidentiality and recency requirements on reporting data, including provisions requiring some reports to contain information from at least three meat processors and limiting the use of recent production data,” Moore reported. “A court-appointed monitor would oversee compliance for up to seven years, while Agri Stats also would be required to implement an antitrust compliance program that includes employee training, whistleblower protections and mandatory disclosure of potential violations.”
Settlement Could be First Move in Broader Meat Sector Antitrust Campaign
RFD-TV’s Tony St. James reported that the DOJ settlement “could become the administration’s first concrete enforcement move in a broader campaign against concentration across meat and protein markets.”
“At Monday’s DOJ press conference, Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, pointed directly to Agri Stats as a model of the behavior the administration wants to break up,” St. James reported. “He said companies were feeding detailed market data into the system and getting back signals that supported monopoly-style pricing. He also suggested the expected settlement could ripple beyond poultry and pork into the wider protein sector, including beef, where DOJ and USDA are separately investigating packer concentration.”
“A settlement would not resolve the beef probe, but it would show Washington moving from rhetoric to action in at least one part of the protein business,” St. James reported.
