McDonald’s has some beef with today’s largest meat packers.

The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company — and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonald’s accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge “illegally inflated” amounts.

This collusion caused the beef market to become “a monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),” McDonald’s suit reads — later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what “antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”

McDonald’s alleges that the meat packers’ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companies’ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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    3 months ago

    Can we sue McDonald for all that they did to artificially decrease the cost of beef, and the immense harm that was done to the climate as a result?

        • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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          3 months ago

          Drag doesn’t eat drag’s friends unless they’re into vore, and drag doesn’t think cows can consent to sex with drag, so no vore for the cows.

          • ililiililiililiilili@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            Uhhh cows not being able to consent is the only reason you aren’t banging them? How the fuck do I unread something? Why speak in 3rd person? Lots of questions

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              Drag seems to be a roleplayer and if you look at drag’s profile, drag’s pronouns are the same in 1st 2nd and 3rd person.

              Though I don’t know if drag realizes that means drag doesn’t need to speak in 3rd person, drag could speak in 1st person like this:

              “Drag don’t eat drag’s friends unless they’re into vote and drag don’t think cows can consent to sex with drag, so no vore for the cows”

              Replacing I/me with drag, as drag’s profile says is proper for first person.

              Now whether drag is roleplaying for the fun of it or trying to make some point about pronouns, I have no idea.

  • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    “Company sues for what company does to customers because those profits are theirs

    • Maeve@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      The worst part is, the average citizen anywhere in the world can not afford to do this. Only some other evil megacorporations

  • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Tell your boyfriend, if he says he’s got beef, that I’m a vegetarian and I ain’t fucking scared of him.

  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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    3 months ago

    Someone should sue McDonald’s for the same thing. All of their prices (not just for beef) have been massively inflated for their profit. A meal there shouldn’t cost $12+ (I’ve seen as much as $15), it’s trash food. I haven’t been back in a long time.

  • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    I trust what McDonald’s is saying in this case. If anyone knows what collusion to inflate prices and fuck over clients looks like, it’s the place with the broken soft serve machines.

  • Big_Boss_77@lemmynsfw.com
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    3 months ago

    McDonald’s should become their own meat packer and interface with the farmers direct. Everyone gets the best deal that way and cut out the asshole middleman driving everything through the roof.

    • Kryptenx@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They’ve tried. Wendy’s QSCC has tried. Walmart is trying. It’s hard to be a beef packer. You have to sell the rest of the animal too, and now you’re just a filthy beef packer yourself. Also sadly impossible to interface with ranchers direct, still must be fed out at a feed yard.

  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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    3 months ago

    Capitalist system

    Big four fixing prices

    ShockedPikachu.png

    The system is working exactly as it’s designed to. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: captialism only encourages monopolies/cartels - that’s the whole point.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      And they’ll certainly reduce their prices once they get their supply chain work down right? … Right?

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      3 months ago

      A few years ago, I was hit hard with some food poisoning that had me in the hospital. I don’t remember what it was, but it made me tune into food recall reports.

      And those recall reports are FREQUENT, and they’re mostly meat.

      I’m not a vegetarian, but I cut beef out of my diet last year. Pork is my next one. Chicken is going to be really hard though.

      • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        For years I never thought I could do vegetarian because I would miss bacon and chicken. Over a decade later and both of those things are so far down in my list of things I miss.

    • Desistance@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      You had money for beef? Prices are sky high. My chicken, pork and fish intake dramatically increased?

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Maybe not a real monopoly, but a sufficiently big player that usually has no problems of using their buying power to squeeze the blood out of their suppliers.

    • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      I’d be OK with giant corporations as if they were actually competing with each other for consumers and labor, paying their fair share of taxes, and weren’t allowed to use their revenue to subvert the will of the people by buying politicians.

      The problem is that it takes a strong FTC, IRS, NLRB, FEC to ensure the above things, and we know how Republicans and billionaires feel about that.

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Now that I’m vegan these articles are so bizarre to me. Oh the price of corpse has gone up? And the industry that produces said corpse is price gouging? That’s nice I’ll have these lovely inexpensive chick peas for dinner and not participate in death and abuse and rape, and my health will be better for it. It’s pretty easy to do.

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If it’s beef, they why have their chicken nuggets also doubled in price in the last couple of years? Oh, this goes back almost a decade you say? So why did you double or triple prices post pandemic?

    • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Dude it’s literally right there at the beginning of the post

      The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        You can’t honestly think McDonald’s trying to blame their massive price increases solely on their meat providers is valid.

        • Clasm@ttrpg.network
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          3 months ago

          It might be valid, but there’s no way McD’s was harmed. Their customers sure got that price fixing damage passed onto them, though.

          • GhostFaceSkrilla@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It’s just over 11$ for 2 large fries. McD should also get sued. I feel like they’re just trying pass 100% of the blame on to their suppliers, after they’ve continued to post record profits year over year. They not only weren’t harmed, they’ve thrived and have been making even more money by price gouging. McD is as much, if not more culpable for inflating prices, than the meat packers.

            • Wilshire@sh.itjust.works
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              3 months ago

              You can get great deals in the app, all you have to do is let them harvest your data and “dark pattern” you into exclusively eating McDonald’s.

        • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I said nothing of the sort. I was responding to the OPs question.

          If it’s beef, they why have their chicken nuggets also doubled in price in the last couple of years?

          It’s right fucking there at the beginning. They’re suing Tyson chicken as well.