Guilty pleas make price-fixing tuna suits easier to prove

Washington, D.C. — The news that StarKist & Co, the last of the US 'big three' tuna canners has admitted to have engaged in price fixing, will make it easier for civil plaintiffs to prove their case, a lawyer told Undercurrent News. 

However, while Thai Union Group-owned Tri-Union Seafoods, the operator of the Chicken of the Sea brand, has indicated a willingness to settle the dozens of civil cases against it, StarKist, owned by South Korea's Dongwon Enterprise, and Bumble Bee Foods, owned by the UK's Lion Capital, have not. 

Tri-Union acted as a whistleblower to the government, agreeing to cooperate with the antitrust investigation and detail the price-fixing cartel in exchange for leniency. 

The recent announcement from the Department of Justice regarding StarKist -- Bumble Bee pleaded guilty last year and agreed to pay a $25 million fine -- will make "liability", there question of whether or not price fixing occurred, easier to prove, according to Christopher Lebsock, a partner at the law firm Hausfeld who represents the "direct purchaser" class of tuna buyers.

Read more at Undercurrent News