Large U.S. poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride (Pilgrim’s) became the first company to plead guilty for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products, the Department of Justice announced today. The company has been sentenced to pay approximately $107.9 million in criminal fines.
According to the plea agreement entered in the U.S. District Court in Denver, from as early as 2012 and continuing at least into 2017, Pilgrim’s participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition for sales of broiler chicken products in the U.S. that affected at least $361 million in Pilgrim’s sales of broiler chicken products.
Former President Trump signed into law the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2019 on December 23, 2020. The law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who provide information to a superior
Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores speaks about controversy over Securus Omari Sankofa II and Angie Jackson, Detroit Free Press
What to know about Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores and Securus Technologies
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Kelly Schaeffer worries there might come a time when she can t afford to talk to her teenage son in jail.
The 44-year-old mother estimates she spends $100 a month for her son to call her every other day from the Muskegon County Jail, which contracts with Securus Technologies to provide telecommunication services. Schaeffer says these conversations are central to maintaining their connection as her son serves a year-long jail sentence.
Source: Senate.gov
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the incoming head of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, has introduced a bill that would bring wide reforms to competition laws and antitrust enforcement that puts companies that sell the tech we love directly in its anti-competitive crosshairs.
The proposed Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act outlines the new administration s policies and attitude towards anti-competitive behavior in several key areas. One is the idea of projecting more of the investigation costs to the companies defending their practices; the other is a set of consumer protections like requiring companies that are given permission to merge or buy another one to show how they have kept their relevant industries competitive since initial the hearings.
Key Points
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) have temporarily suspended discretionary grants of early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976
The HSR Act requires parties that meet certain transaction size and other tests to file premerger notification forms with both the FTC and DOJ and observe the required waiting period prior to consummating the transaction.
This follows the announcement earlier this week that the HSR minimum transaction size test has decreased from $94 million to $92 million. The new size thresholds will apply to transactions consummated on or after March 4, 2021.