Attorney General Ken Paxton and Trump DOJ Secure Historic Antitrust Settlement with Agricultural Data Broker to Lower the Prices of Meat Products

AUSTIN, TX -- Attorney General Ken Paxton, working together with the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice, secured a monumental settlement with Agri Stats, Inc. (“Agri Stats”). This settlement restores competition to the agriculture industry and lowers the prices for key groceries such as chicken, pork, and turkey for all Americans.

Agri Stats facilitated the sharing of costs and other competitively-sensitive information among meat processors. This information allowed competitors to closely monitor one another’s operations and pricing strategies, which reduced competition and enabled coordinated price increases across the industry. This resulted in higher costs of chicken, pork, and turkey and increased the cost of Americans’ grocery bills.

Under this historic settlement, Agri Stats has agreed to make industry-shifting changes to how it distributes information and what information it can distribute. The company will also make monetary payments to the states involved. This landmark settlement will inform how competing companies can share competitively-sensitive information and represents one of the most significant enforcement actions taken against an industry wrought with a history of antitrust violations.

“Americans deserve fairly priced groceries, and I am honored to have partnered with President Trump’s DOJ to lower the cost of chicken, pork, and turkey,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Agri Stats facilitated the sharing of information that killed true competition in pricing and raised the price of food for consumers. The company will now be held accountable for its antitrust violation, and American consumers will now have lower-priced groceries.”

Attorney General Paxton has been vigilant in investigating and challenging anticompetitive conduct impacting Texas agriculture, including farmers, producers, and consumers. In addition to multiple, nonpublic antitrust investigations involving agriculture, Attorney General Paxton is currently suing pesticide manufacturers for anticompetitive conduct harming farmers, investigating grocery stores’ use of pesticides on organic fruits and vegetables, and recently obtained a significant settlement against egg producer Cal-Maine for price gouging.