StarKist, Bumble Bee Foods, and their parent companies have agreed to pay more than $216 million to resolve claims that they colluded to inflate prices for canned tuna, following years of litigation and federal investigations. The settlements, approved by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego on Friday, mark a significant resolution to a sprawling antitrust case involving the country’s largest tuna producers.
The case involves two major settlements addressing allegations of price-fixing in the canned tuna industry between 2011 and 2015. The first settlement pertains to a class of consumers across the United States who accused StarKist’s parent company Dongwon Industries, Bumble Bee Foods, and their private equity owner Lion Capital of colluding to overcharge for canned tuna products. This settlement awards $130 million to the consumer class. When combined with a prior $22.2 million settlement with Chicken of the Sea and its parent company Thai Union Group, the total payout to consumers reaches $152.2 million.
The second settlement addresses claims brought by hundreds of grocery distributors and national retailers, including Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative, Pacific Groservice Inc. (doing business as PITCO Foods), and Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Co. These plaintiffs will collectively receive $64.7 million, resolving their allegations that the companies engaged in anti-competitive practices to fix tuna prices.
The legal saga dates back to 2015, when Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative filed a class-action lawsuit in San Diego federal court. Dozens of similar lawsuits were later consolidated in the same court, alleging that the three largest canned tuna companies — StarKist, Bumble Bee, and Chicken of the Sea — colluded to fix prices, violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Together, the companies controlled 73% of the U.S. canned tuna market, with Bumble Bee holding 29%, StarKist 25.3%, and Chicken of the Sea 18.4%, according to the complaint.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division intervened, launching a federal grand jury investigation in California. This led to Bumble Bee pleading guilty to criminal price-fixing charges in 2017, further bolstering the civil litigation claims.
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