Settlement Reached in Potatoes Antitrust Lawsuit on Behalf of Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc
After nearly three years of litigation, Stueve Siegel Hanson successfully resolved antitrust claims brought under the Sherman Act and the Kansas Restraint of Trade Act on behalf of Associated Wholesale Growers, Inc. against several potato trade groups, processors, dehydrators, growers and marketers. The settling defendants include potato trade groups United Potato Growers of Idaho, United Potato Growers of America, and United II; potato processor R.D. Offut Company; dehydrator Idahoan Foods, LLC; potato marketer Potandon Produce; and grower defendants Blaine Larsen Farms, Inc., Driscoll Potatoes, Inc., Rigby Produce, Inc., Wada Farms, Inc., and several other grower entities.
Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc., a wholesale grocery cooperative based in Kansas City, opted out of class action proceedings to pursue its individual state and federal antitrust claims. AWG’s case was consolidated in In Re Fresh and Process Potatoes Antitrust Litigation, the multidistrict proceeding before the Honorable B. Lynn Winmill in the District of Idaho, Eastern Division. AWG’s direct action lawsuit alleged that the defendants engaged in various supply control practices designed to raise the price of fresh and processed potatoes in violation of the Kansas Restraint of Trade Act and the Sherman Act. The defendants denied the allegations. The settlement is confidential.
AWG excluded itself from an earlier 25 million dollar settlement reached by a class of direct and indirect purchaser plaintiffs that received preliminary final court approval in 2015.
The law firm of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP (www.stuevesiegel.com) based in Kansas City, represents AWG. The litigation is styled In Re: Fresh and Process Potatoes Antitrust Litigation, 13-cv-00251-BLW.
