Maine resident is latest to sue the salmon giants based on US anti-trust legislation.
An individual – not a company like Ohio-based seafood distributor Euclid Fish Company – is the latest behind a spate of lawsuits directed at some of the world’s biggest salmon farmers which include Mowi, SalMar, Lerøy, Bremnes and exporter Ocean Quality.
The companies face a total of at least 10 class action lawsuits, reports Undercurrent.
The docket was last retrieved on June 12, 2019, and was filed by a Maine resident Robin Wilkey, represented by Richard O’Meara.
According to the proposed class action filed in Miami federal court, the lawsuits accuse the companies of allegedly conspiring to fix the price of salmon by coordinating sales prices, exchanging commercially sensitive information, agreeing to buy products from competitors when these sell at low prices and coordinating a strategy to increase spot prices to achieve higher prices for longterm contracts.
The lawsuit follows the European Commission’s investigation of the same companies in February. The legal documents, which show that the lawsuit relies heavily on the EU Commission’s ongoing investigation into alleged price manipulation that was initiated by raids against several of the companies at the end of February this year.
Mowi and Grieg Seafood told SalmonBusiness in April that they rejected the charges.
