Attorneys who led a class action lawsuit accusing some of the largest producers of chicken in the U.S. of conspiring to overcharge American consumers for their poultry stand to take in more than $60 million in attorney fees, or about one-third of a combined $181 million settlement to end the legal action.
People who actually bought chicken could each earn a piece of the remaining pie, as well, though the actual amount will be determined by how many people ultimately submit valid claims.
Administrators of the settlement fund began accepting claims on Sept. 11. People will be able to continue to submit claims until Dec. 31, 2022, according to information posted on the settlement administration website.
Claims can be submitted online through the settlement administration website.
The announcement of the claims period comes about a month after U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin signed off on a settlement between attorneys representing a class of potentially many millions of Americans, and poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride.
That settlement, worth about $75.5 million, was the final big piece in a bucket of deals with other chicken producers, including poultry giant Tyson Foods. Tyson agreed to pay $99 million to settle claims against it.
All told, the various settlements equaled about $181 million to be paid out collectively by the chicken producers.
The settlements were reached to end a significant portion a long-running series of class action lawsuits alleging the poultry producers conspired to fix prices.
Since 2016, chicken producers have defended themselves against the antitrust lawsuits. The lawsuits were divided up between those brought by so-called “direct purchasers” of chicken, such as supermarkets and other sellers of chicken, and “end users,” including restaurants and consumers who ultimately fry, grill, boil, broil and roast the chicken.
The end users have been represented by attorneys Shana E. Scarlett, of the firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, of Berkeley, California, and Brent W. Johnson, of the firm of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, of Washington, D.C., along with other attorneys from those firms.
The $181 million settlements collectively would bring to an end much of the legal action brought on behalf of the end users.
The allegations in all the actions are similar: Chicken producers allegedly used internal shared data to work together to suppress the supply of chicken to elevate prices, even while their production costs were allegedly decreasing. This allegedly significantly boosted their profits.
When poultry producers failed to be able to make the actions take flight, the parties ultimately reached the settlement to avoid years of further court costs and potentially a trial with an unpredictable outcome.
Under the terms of the settlement, anyone who purchased chicken at any time from 2009-2020 could be eligible to claim a slice of the settlement funds.
None of the settlement documents to date include an estimate on how many people may ultimately be eligible for such a cut.
However, chicken is the meat most commonly consumed in American households, according to industry data, which reports Americans consume nearly 8 billion chickens every year, or more than 80 pounds per person annually.
So it remains unknown how much a typical claimant might receive from the settlement. At this point, the claim process does not require claimants to supply any proof of purchase, only to attest that they purchased chicken in the past decade and estimate how much they may have spent on chicken in a typical month.
At the time the Pilgrim’s Pride settlement was made public in court, it was unknown how much in fees attorneys would receive.
However, according to information posted on the settlement website, the lawyers indicate they will request more than $60 million in fees, and $8.75 million more to reimburse them for costs they paid to press the case in court.
That would leave potentially $111 million to be distributed among potentially many millions, or even tens of millions of claimants.