Tyson Foods, the nation's largest chicken producer, will pay Washington $10.5 million to settle a lawsuit that accused it of a long-running scheme to fix prices and rig contracts in coordination with its major competitors.
The settlement, announced Monday by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, is the third since Ferguson sued 19 chicken producers last year, accusing them of conspiring to drive up prices on everything from chicken nuggets to chicken breasts to Popeye's chicken sandwiches.
Those 19 companies together represent 95% of the broiler chickens sold in America. Ferguson has reached settlements with two other smaller chicken producers, Mar-Jac Poultry and Fieldale Farms, worth $1.2 million total.
