Consumer Indirect Purchaser Pork Litigation

The lawsuit:
This is an antitrust class action lawsuit that alleges pork processors—including JBS, Clemens, Hormel, Seaboard, Smithfield, Triumph, and Tyson— inflated and stabilized the price and supply of pork through the use of Agri Stats, production restraints and the use of exports. The Court has not ruled that the Defendants did anything wrong, and the companies deny all allegations of wrongdoing.

Settlements: Defendants Agri Stats, Clemens, Hormel, Seaboard, Triumph, and Tyson have agreed to settlements to resolve the legal claims against them. Agri Stats has agreed to reform certain business practices.

Previous settlements have been reached with Defendants JBS and Smithfield. The time period to submit a claim for those settlements is closed. No cash payments are available for the Agri Stats Settlement.

This lawsuit is called In re: Pork Antitrust Litigation (Consumer Indirect Purchaser Plaintiffs). It is pending in the United States District Court, District of Minnesota. The case number is 18-1776. The Judge overseeing this litigation is Judge John R. Tunheim.

In a class action lawsuit, one or more people sue on behalf of a larger group. The people who represent the group are called “class representatives.” The whole group of people is called a “class.” Individual people in the class are called “class members.”

The Defendants in this lawsuit are JBS, Clemens, Hormel, Seaboard, Smithfield, Triumph, Tyson, and Agri Stats. All Defendants have now settled.

Notice was previously provided regarding settlements with JBS and Smithfield. The time period to submit a claim for those settlements is now closed.

Plaintiffs and Defendants have agreed to settle without the Court deciding who is right. A settlement is an agreement to stop the lawsuit. That way, it avoids the cost of a trial, and the people in the Settlement Class will get compensation. The Class Representatives and the lawyers think the Settlement is best for the Settlement Class.

The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are: Michael Anderson, Sandra Steffen, Michael Pickett, David Look, Joseph Realdine, Ryan Kutil, Kory Bird, Duncan Birch, Robert Eccles, Jennifer Sullivan, Kenneth King, Sarah Isola, Wanda Duryea, Edwin Blakey, Michael Reilly, Jeffrey Allison, Kenneth Neal, Chad Nodland, Chris Deery, Laura Wheeler, Christina Hall, Donya Collins, Thomas Cosgrove, Charles “Rich” Dye, Eric Schaub, Kate Smith, Stacey Troupe, James Eaton, and Isabelle Bell.

You are included if you are a person or entity who indirectly purchased any of the following Pork products for personal consumption between June 28, 2014, and June 30, 2018:

• Raw pork bacon, or one or more of the following types of raw pork (fresh or frozen) made from bellies, loins, shoulder, ribs, or pork chops from defendants or co-conspirators. More details regarding the different pork products included in the Settlement are available here.
• Purchased in one of the following states/jurisdictions (known as “Repealer Jurisdictions” for this case): Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

“Indirectly purchased” means you did not buy the pork products directly from one of the Defendants. Instead, you bought it at a grocery store or supermarket.

Any pork marketed as organic, no-antibiotics ever (NAE) and any product other than bacon that is marinated, seasoned, flavored, or breaded. Bacon is included as a Pork product. Click here for further details regarding the different Pork products included in the Settlement.

Yes. Excluded from the Settlement Class are the Defendants, the officers, directors or employees of any Defendant; any entity in which any Defendant has a controlling interest; any affiliate, legal representative, heir or assign of any Defendant; any federal, state, or local governmental entities, any judicial officer presiding over this lawsuit and the members of his/her immediate family and judicial staff, any juror assigned to this lawsuit, and any co-conspirator identified in this lawsuit.

If you are still not sure whether you are a Class Member, click here for further details regarding the different Pork products included in the Settlement or call toll-free 1- 888-287-5434.

If you are a Class Member, you can submit a timely and valid Claim Form to receive a pro rata (a legal term meaning equal share) cash payment proportional to the amount of Pork products you purchased. No cash payments are available for the Agri Stats Settlement.

More information on each Settlement is below.

Agri Stats Settlement: Agri Stats has agreed to reform certain business practices. The Agri Stats Settlement Agreement is available here.

Agri Stats’ position is that it does not publish pork processing reports in the United States as of the date of this Settlement Agreement and states that Agri Stats has no plans to resume such reports. In the unforeseen event that Agri Stats resumes publication of pork processing reports in the future, Agri Stats agrees to implement the below Conduct Reform for pork processing reports in the United States prior to any resumption of publication of such reports, in consideration for the release of Released Claims and the dismissal of the Action. Agri Stats agrees to the below changes specifically to resolve the Action, and neither this Settlement Agreement nor the below changes shall be construed as an admission or acknowledgment that Agri Stats will publish pork processing reports in the future.

1. Retain an experienced outside attorney with responsibility for antitrust compliance;
2. Conduct annual employee antitrust compliance training;
3. Implement a written antitrust compliance policy and training:
   1. Prohibiting Agri Stats and its employees from disclosing to a competitor of a pork subscriber, orally or in writing (including through custom reports), any non-public information collected from a pork subscriber other than the anonymized information disclosed in Agri Stats’ reports;
   2. Prohibiting any Agri Stats pork report from containing actual competitor- or plant-level price or production volume data.
   3. Implementing data security measures to prevent pork customer employees who transition from firm A to firm B from accessing firm A data.
   4. Implementing data security measures to prevent Agri Stats employees who transition to a customer firm from accessing non-public or non-anonymized Agri Stats data.
   5. Prohibiting Agri Stats and its employees from assisting with identifying and/or de-anonymizing pork subscriber data in Agri Stats’ reports;
   6. Ensuring that all data values within all data fields in Agri Stats pork reports consist of data from at least three entities with no entity representing more than 70% of the data, except for quartile data fields and plant-level data fields (that are not removed as set forth in Exhibit A of the Agri Stats Settlement Agreement, as discussed below);
   7. Agri Stats will suppress any fields that have categorical values (for example a field that takes on values of YES and NO, or a plant shift field which lists the shifts a plant operates, or the breed processed at a particular plant) if any given value of that category has fewer than three firms. If, at any time, the number of plants increases or the number of firms that take on a particular value increases, the field no longer needs to be suppressed. Conversely if the number of plants decreases or the number of firms that take on a particular value decreases such that fewer than three firms take on a particular value, the field will be suppressed even if it had not been in the past;
   8. Requiring that, other than data available for anyone to purchase as set forth below, every data field in Agri Stats pork reports shall be composed of data that is at least 45 days old on average;
4. Implement provisions protecting confidentiality of competitor data in Agri Stats pork customer contracts.
5. Remove all participant lists in pork reports.
6. Remove all flags in pork reports.
7. Remove in the pork reports made available to a report recipient all plant-level production-related data fields identified in Exhibit A of the Agri Stats Settlement Agreement for pork subscribers other than the report recipient. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Agri Stats may provide to a subscriber a subscriber’s rank and percentile for these data fields.
8. Modify the pork reports as necessary to (1) delete variance fields and/or (2) suppress “linking” of data fields across reports that would otherwise disclose the plant-level data field identified in Exhibit A of the Agri Stats Settlement Agreement.
9. Nothing in this Settlement Agreement prohibits or limits EMI’s ability to provide nationwide average price data by product category for anyone (including consumers) to purchase. Agri Stats also shall publish a pork performance report containing the production-related data fields identified in Exhibit B of the Agri Stats Settlement Agreement, for anyone (including consumers) to purchase. Neither Agri Stats nor EMI may refuse a purchase of such reports on the basis that the purchaser is not a protein producer unless the persons or entities have unresolved claims pending against Agri Stats. The prices for such reports shall be no more than the average price being charged to Agri Stats’ or EMI’s regular customers as of the date of purchase. Except as set forth in this paragraph, nothing in this Settlement Agreement shall prohibit Agri Stats or EMI from adjusting or altering prices to any customer or adjusting other terms and conditions of purchase from time to time in its sole discretion. Such reports shall be made available without requiring the submission of data from subscribers, except that Agri Stats and EMI may continue to require processors to submit data.
10. Agri Stats will not introduce any averages in any pork reports or subsections that do not comply with the 3 entity / 70% rule set forth above.
11. Agri Stats will give class counsel two weeks’ notice in the unforeseen event that pork reports resume.
12. No non-public export data collected from a subscriber will be provided to any competitor other than the information disclosed in Agri Stats’ regular pork reports.
13. Agri Stats will provide no forward-looking industry forecasts to pork processors, including regarding how future industry production decisions might impact future prices or profitability. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in the Settlement Agreement prohibits or limits EMI’s ability to provide forward-looking industry forecasts based on publicly available data for anyone (including consumers) to purchase and EMI may not refuse such a purchase on the basis that the purchaser is not a protein producer unless the persons or entities have unresolved claims pending against Agri Stats.
14. In the unforeseen event that Agri Stats resumes publication of pork processing reports in the future, Agri Stats agrees that it will not read the plant-level data fields set forth in Exhibit A of the Agri Stats Settlement Agreement for subscribers other than the report recipient under a different numbering system, report, or mechanism for delivery to a report recipient. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in the Settlement Agreement prohibits or limits 1) subscriber disclosure of data to Agri Stats or Agri Stats’ addition of new reports or services, so long as such reports or services incorporate corresponding restrictions to those set forth herein; or 2) the renumbering and reordering of reports or data fields.
15. Agri Stats will not disclose any non-public data collected from a pork subscriber to any competitor of the subscriber other than the anonymized information disclosed in Agri Stats’ regular reports, including through electronic tools like the sales data miner, web application programming interfaces [“API”] services, or other web services provided by Agri Stats and/or its parents, subsidiaries, owners, or contractors. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in the Settlement Agreement prohibits Agri Stats from providing pork reports to subscribers in different electronic formats, so long as the format complies with the other provisions of this Settlement Agreement.
16. Agri Stats shall cease, and will not resume in the future, publication of any and all sales reports. Agri Stats shall cease, and will not resume in the future, publication of any and all price data for product categories that are not otherwise made available to the public from EMI pursuant to Paragraph (i).
17. With the exception of paragraph (p), this conduct relief shall remain in effect for five years, starting from the unforeseen date that Agri Stats resumes the pork reports.
18. Nothing in this Settlement Agreement shall be construed to prohibit Agri Stats from petitioning the Court for modification of the Conduct Relief for good cause shown.
19. This Section sets out the total scope of Agri Stats’ Conduct Relief agreed upon by the parties, and Agri Stats shall have no further obligations other than or beyond those set forth in this Section.

Triumph Settlement: Triumph agreed to pay $4,100,000 to resolve all Class Members’ legal claims against Triumph. Triumph has also agreed to certain non-monetary relief. The Triumph Settlement Agreement is available here.

Hormel Settlement: Hormel agreed to pay $4,465,000 to resolve all Class Members’ legal claims against Hormel. Hormel has also agreed to certain non-monetary relief. The Hormel Settlement Agreement is available here.

Seaboard Settlement: Seaboard agreed to pay $10,000,000 to resolve all Class Members’ legal claims against Seaboard. Seaboard has also agreed to certain non-monetary relief. The Seaboard Settlement Agreement is available here.

Clemens Settlement: Clemens agreed to pay $13,500,000 to resolve all Class Members’ legal claims against Clemens. Clemens has also agreed to certain non-monetary relief. The Clemens Settlement Agreement is available here.

Tyson Settlement: Tyson agreed to pay $85,000,000 to resolve all Class Members’ legal claims against Tyson. Tyson has also agreed to certain non-monetary relief. The Tyson Settlement Agreement is available here.

If you stay in the Settlement Class, you cannot sue Agri Stats, Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, or Tyson on your own for these same legal claims. You cannot opt-out of the Agri Stats Settlement.

The Agri Stats Released Claims are detailed in Paragraphs 11-12 of the Agri Stats Settlement. The Triumph Released Claims are detailed in Paragraphs 14-15 of the Triumph Settlement. The Hormel Released Claims are detailed in Paragraphs 14-15 of the Hormel Settlement. The Seaboard Released Claims are detailed in Paragraphs 14-15 of the Seaboard Settlement. The Clemens Released Claims are detailed in Paragraphs 14-15 of the Clemens Settlement. The Tyson Released Claims are detailed in Paragraphs 14-15 of the Tyson Settlement.

These sections describe the “Released Claims” and “Released Parties” in necessary legal terminology, so read these sections carefully. The Settlement Agreements are available here. For questions regarding the Releases and what they mean, you can also contact the lawyers listed below for free, or you can talk to your own lawyer at your own expense.

If you do nothing, you will remain a member of the Settlement Class. You must submit a timely and valid Claim Form to receive a cash payment from the Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and Tyson Settlements. No cash payments are available for the Agri Stats Settlement. If the Agri Stats, Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements are approved and become final, all Court orders and judgments will apply to you and legally bind you.

You must submit a timely and valid Claim Form to receive a cash payment. Your Claim Form must be submitted online here by October 29, 2026, or mailed to the Settlement Administrator at the address on the Claim Form, postmarked by October 29, 2026.

Please note per the United States Postal Service, mail may not be postmarked the day it is deposited in a mailbox or at a local post office. Postmarks occur when mail reaches a processing facility. To meet a postmark deadline, mail at least a week prior to a postmark deadline, get a manual postmark in-person at any post office, or send via Certified Mail.

At this time, it is unknown how much each Class Member that submits a timely and valid Claim Form will receive. Payments will be based on a number of factors, including the number of timely and valid Claim Forms filed by all members of the Settlement Class.

If you file a timely and valid Claim Form, your cash payment will be provided after the Settlements are approved by the Court and become final.

It may take time for the Settlements to be approved and become final. Please be patient and check this website for updates.

If you change your mailing address or email address after you submit a Claim Form, it is your responsibility to inform the Settlement Administrator of your updated information. You may notify the Settlement Administrator of any changes by writing to:

You may exclude yourself from the Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements. You cannot opt-out of the Agri Stats Settlement. You must mail a written request for exclusion, which includes the following:

1. Your full name, current mailing address, and email address (if any);
2. Your personal physical signature; and
3. A statement that you want to be excluded from the Settlement, such as “I hereby request to be excluded from the Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements in In Re Pork Antitrust Litigation.”

The exclusion request must be mailed to the Settlement Administrator at the following address, and be postmarked by October 29, 2026.

You cannot exclude yourself by telephone or by email.

“Mass” or “class” requests for exclusion filed by third parties on behalf of a “mass” or “class” of Class Members or multiple Class Members where the opt-out has not been signed by each and every individual Class Member will not be allowed.

Please note per the United States Postal Service, mail may not be postmarked the day it is deposited in a mailbox or at a local post office. Postmarks occur when mail reaches a processing facility. To meet a postmark deadline, mail at least a week prior to a postmark deadline, get a manual postmark in-person at any post office, or send via Certified Mail.

No. Unless you exclude yourself, you give up any right to sue the Released Parties (Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson) for the legal claims that these Settlements resolve and Release, and you will be bound by all of the terms of the Settlements. You must exclude yourself from the Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements to start or continue with your own lawsuit or be part of any other lawsuit against the Released Parties about the Released Claims in these Settlements. If you have a pending lawsuit, speak to your lawyer in that lawsuit immediately.

You cannot opt-out of the Agri Stats Settlement.

No. Unless you exclude yourself, you give up any right to sue the Released Parties (Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson) for the legal claims that these Settlements resolve and Release, and you will be bound by all of the terms of the Settlements. You must exclude yourself from the Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements to start or continue with your own lawsuit or be part of any other lawsuit against the Released Parties about the Released Claims in these Settlements. If you have a pending lawsuit, speak to your lawyer in that lawsuit immediately.

You cannot opt-out of the Agri Stats Settlement.

Objecting is when you tell the Court that you don’t like something about a settlement. You must give reasons why you think the Court should not approve it. The Court will consider your views. You can hire your own lawyer to help you, but you do not have to.

To object, you must send a letter to the Court. Your letter must include:

1. Your name, address, and telephone number,
2. All grounds for the objection, accompanied by any legal support for the objection known to you as the objector or your own lawyer;
3. Identify whether your objection is to the Settlement in part or in whole;
4. State whether the objection applies only to you as the objector, a subset of the Settlement Class, or the entire Settlement Class;
5. A statement saying that you object to the Agri Stats, Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements in In re Pork Antitrust Litigation (Consumer Indirect Purchaser Actions), No. 18-1776, and
6. Your signature (you must sign the letter).

You must mail your objection postmarked no later than October 29, 2026 to these two addresses:

Please note per the United States Postal Service, mail may not be postmarked the day it is deposited in a mailbox or at a local post office. Postmarks occur when mail reaches a processing facility. To meet a postmark deadline, mail at least a week prior to a postmark deadline, get a manual postmark in-person at any post office, or send via Certified Mail.

No. The judge cannot change the terms of the Settlements. They can only approve or not approve the Settlements as they are. If the judge agrees with your objection, they may not approve the Settlements.

No. You cannot object to a Settlement if you exclude yourself.

Yes. The judge assigned lawyers from two law firms to represent you and the other Class Members in this lawsuit. The law firms are Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Gustafson Gluek PLLC.

These lawyers are called “Class Counsel.”

You will not be charged for these lawyers, and you can contact them for free. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you can hire one, but you may have to pay them.

Class Counsel will ask the Court for an award of attorneys’ fees up to 33 1/3% of the Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and/or Tyson Settlements Gross Settlement Amounts, plus interest, up to $5,000,000 in litigation expenses, settlement administration costs, and $3,000 service awards for each class representative to be paid from the Settlement Funds. Any payment to the lawyers or class representatives will be subject to Court approval, and the Court may award less than the requested amount. The attorneys’ fees, costs, expenses, and service awards that the Court orders, plus the costs to administer the Settlements, will be paid out of each Defendants’ respective Settlement Fund.

When Class Counsel’s motions for attorneys’ fees, costs, expenses, and service awards are filed in the Settlements, they will be available here. The motions will be posted on the case website before the deadline for objecting to the Settlements.

After deducting attorney’s fees, expenses and class representative service awards (see FAQ #27), the settlement funds will be largely distributed pro rata (a legal term meaning equal share) based on the number of purchases of Class Members submitting valid claims. The Claims Administrator may institute a minimum payment. There may be multiple rounds of distribution if economically feasible. After it is no longer economically feasible to distribute to class members, the residual money may be sent to a court-approved cy pres recipient, escheated, or be distributed as the Court otherwise orders. Before distributing the residual money, Class Counsel will seek Court approval and post any relevant documents on the website.

The judge will hold a hearing to decide if they will approve the Agri Stats, Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and Tyson Settlements. The judge’s decision after the hearing will affect the rights of all Class Members. The Settlements will only go into effect if the judge approves them and appeals are resolved. If you wish, you may attend the hearing.

The hearing is scheduled for December 11, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. CST before the Honorable John R. Tunheim at the U.S. District of Minnesota Courthouse, 300 South Fourth Street, Suite 202, Minneapolis, Minnesota or via telephone or video conference.

The judge may decide to move the hearing to a different date or time. Check this website for updates.

At the hearing, the Court will consider if it will approve the Settlements. The Court may consider any objections at that time. The judge will listen to people who have asked to speak at the hearing. The Court may also decide how much it wants to pay Class Counsel and the Class Representatives.

No. You do not have to attend the hearing, but you are welcome to attend at your own cost. If you mail a written objection to the Court on time, the judge will consider it. This is true even if you do not attend the Court hearing to talk about it.

You may also pay your own lawyer to attend, but you do not have to.

Yes. You may ask to speak at the Fairness Hearing. To do so, you must send a letter saying that it is your “Notice of Intention to Appear in In Re Pork Antitrust Litigation, No. 18-1776.” Be sure to include your name, current mailing address, telephone number, and signature. Your Notice of Intention to Appear must be postmarked by October 29, 2026, and it must be sent to the Clerk of the Court and the Settlement Administrator. The addresses are:

This website summarizes the lawsuit, Agri Stats, Triumph, Hormel, Seaboard, Clemens, and Tyson Settlements, and your legal rights. More details are in each Defendants’ Settlement Agreement. You can find a copy of the Settlement Agreements, other important documents, and information about the current status of the lawsuit on this website. You may get additional information by calling toll-free at 1- 888-287-5434 or by writing to: