Washington Is Sending People $30 Million In Refunds For Grocery Price Gouging After Discovering Illegal Price-Fixing By Chicken Companies

The longer our crisis of high grocery prices continues, the clearer it has become that it's more than just "inflation," especially since food makers' corporate profits keep soaring right along with sticker prices.

A case in the state of Washington indicates that food companies have been engaging in illegal grocery price gouging and colluding with each other to keep prices artificially high for far longer than most would probably guess.

Washington state is refunding shoppers nearly $30 million after a grocery price gouging lawsuit against chicken companies.

On July 8, 2024, the office of Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that it had officially closed a sweeping lawsuit against a laundry list of chicken companies, including big names like Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson, Perdue, and Foster Farms, that will be instantly familiar to anyone who buys chicken with any regularity.

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Ferguson announced in December 2023 that the $35.5 million chicken lawsuit, along with a similar $5.5 million lawsuit aimed at canned tuna producers, had finally been settled. The AG's office has begun distributing nearly $30 million in refunds to consumers with incomes at or below 175% of the federal poverty level who overpaid for chicken or tuna.

The 2021 antitrust lawsuit was filed against more than 20 corporations for price-fixing schemes dating back to at least 2008.

Since grocery prices began skyrocketing in 2020 due to the pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that more than just inflation has been the cause — namely, purposeful price gouging.

But the Washington chicken and tuna lawsuits show that this has been going on for far longer than just the last few years. AG Ferguson's antitrust lawsuit stretches back to at least 2008, long before the pandemic was even a glimmer in anyone's eye.

Ferguson's lawsuits centered on an illegal price-fixing scheme, defined by the Federal Trade Commission as "an agreement… among competitors to raise, lower, maintain, or stabilize prices or price levels."

In essence, the chicken and tuna producers illegally colluded with each other to artificially jack up prices beyond what the market would dictate in order to fleece consumers. As AG Ferguson put it, "The corporations involved in these conspiracies cheated in order to increase their profits — and they harmed families in the process."

The terms of the lawsuit require these companies to initiate training and company policies to ensure such schemes do not happen again. If they are found to be engaging in price-fixing within the next five years, the AG's office can also file civil suits against them for even more money.

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The lawsuit confirms what studies have already shown: Corporations have been price gouging consumers on groceries for years under the guise of 'inflation.'

There's no doubt that inflation has hit everything, including groceries, hard in recent years due to manufacturing shutdowns and soaring post-lockdown demand for goods caused by the pandemic. This perfect storm sent inflation to a 41-year record high of 9.1% in June 2022.

But it's become obvious that inflation isn't the whole story. While it's drastically reduced to just over 3%, grocery prices have continued rising fast and are now 25% higher than in 2019, according to government data.

Meanwhile, corporate profits have reached all-time highs, so what gives? So-called "greedflation," or artificial price-gouging by corporations under the guise of "inflation." 

One study found that a full 53% of U.S. "inflation" in 2023 was actually just corporations jacking up prices because they can, including via "shrinkflation" — shrinking the size of products without adjusting the price.

And, in a telling and revealing development, companies like Amazon Fresh, Walmart and Target have recently announced they are slashing grocery prices in an effort to recoup profits lost by consumers drastically changing their grocery habits to cope with high prices.

The Washington state lawsuit further proves just how much of an outright scam grocery prices not only are but apparently have been for decades, enabled by lax regulations on corporations that have become an article of faith for many of our politicians, especially (though certainly not exclusively) those on the right.

AG Ferguson, for his part, is vowing to continue fighting this. He says the remaining money from the chicken and tuna lawsuits will be used for future antitrust work, including fighting back against the planned merger of grocery chain Albertson's with Kroger, which has become notorious for grocery price-gouging—and has the soaring corporate profits to show for it.

Here's hoping Ferguson's and others' efforts prevail because what grocery companies and food corporations are doing to us at the grocery checkout lane is an absolute scandal.

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John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.