Agribusiness  February 3, 2025

R-CALF seeks approval of $83.5 million settlement with JBS

JBS/Pilgrim's Pride headquarters
The combined JBS USA/Pilgrim’s Pride headquarters in Greeley. Both entities are majority-owned by Brazilian meat giant JBS S.A. BizWest file photo
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GREELEY — The Montana-based R-CALF USA, and others who filed a class action lawsuit in 2019 against JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef, are seeking a federal court’s approval of a proposed $83.5 million settlement with Greeley-based JBS, according to a news release.

“If the court grants preliminary approval of the proposed settlement, it will order that notice be sent to the settlement classes informing them of the proposed settlement’s details, including how class members can make a claim for their share of the settlement,” the release stated.

Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund alleged in the lawsuit that the nation’s four largest beef packers violated U.S. antitrust laws, the Packers and Stockyards Act, and the Commodity Exchange Act by unlawfully depressing the prices paid to American ranchers. The lawsuit stated the companies “conspired to depress the price of fed cattle they purchased from American ranchers, thereby inflating their own margins and profits,” according to a news release. 

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According to the settlement agreement, “JBS has agreed to pay $83,500,000 into a settlement fund and to provide cooperation to assist Cattle Plaintiffs in their prosecution of claims against the remaining Defendants. As part of JBS’s cooperation, it has agreed to, among other things: (a) provide documents or data produced by JBS in response to discovery taken by other plaintiffs in the MDL, (b) allow Cattle Plaintiffs to notice up to an additional three depositions of JBS witnesses, (c) use its best efforts to produce up to three current or former employees to testify at trial, and (d) provide best efforts to authenticate or lay evidentiary foundation for the admissibility of documents produced by JBS in the MDL.”

R-CALF is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries, according to its website.

“We’re pleased to have reached this settlement with JBS and we look forward to prosecuting our claims against the remaining defendants, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef,” R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said in the news release.

According to the release, “The settlement is not an admission of liability by JBS, who continues to deny any wrongdoing.”

If the court grants preliminary approval of the proposed settlement, the release stated, it will order that notice be sent to the settlement classes informing them of the proposed settlement’s details, including how class members can make a claim for their share of the settlement.

Case cited:

22-md-03031, Cattle and Antitrust Beef Litigation, filed June 3, 2022 in U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.  Originally filed as Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America et al v. Tyson Foods, Inc. et al, filed April 23, 2019 in Illinois Northern District Court.

Case cited:

22-md-03031, Cattle and Antitrust Beef Litigation, filed June 3, 2022 in U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.  Originally filed as Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America et al v. Tyson Foods, Inc. et al, filed April 23, 2019 in Illinois Northern District Court.

The Montana-based R-CALF USA, and others who filed a class action lawsuit in 2019 against JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef, are seeking a federal court’s approval of a proposed $83.5 million settlement with Greeley-based JBS, according to a news release.

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