Alaska Has Sued Over 21 Poultry Businesses for Illegally Inflating Prices

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has sued 21 businesses involved in the poultry industry, claiming the businesses operated a cartel and illegally inflated the price of most chicken sold in the state.

The Alaska Department of Law filed a consumer-protection lawsuit late last month in state court seeking more than $1 billion from the nation’s largest poultry producers, distributors, and pricers, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The lawsuit also asks for damages, restitution, attorney fees, and costs. 

The lawsuit involves broiler chickens, which account for 98% of all chicken sold in the U.S.

Maria Bahr, an assistant attorney general and department spokeswoman, said the state alleges a cartel of corporations “engaged in an illegal conspiracy to restrain production and manipulate pricing to artificially inflate the price of broiler chicken throughout the United States, including Alaska.”