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.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    25 days ago

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

    I would have been disappointed if there wasn’t a line like this in the story somewhere. It practically writes itself.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    We’ll isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. The restaurant chain famous for jacking prices up while shrinking portion sizes and generally screwing their customers in every way they can doesn’t like it when they are getting taken advantage of. Cry me a fucking river. Fuck you McDogsBreath!

    • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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      25 days ago

      I will be thoroughly stunned if the huge settlement they may get actually results in lower prices for customers.

    • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      To be fair, the screwing flows downriver. If the sourcers start getting greedy, the business has to make up the difference by increasing prices.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      23 days ago

      Yeah, I dunno how I missed this article. Makes me laugh that McD’s is going to try something like this.

      https://www.newsweek.com/mcdonalds-inflation-economy-price-increase-joe-biden-1905209

      TheStreet reported that Medium French Fries went from $1.79 in 2019 to $4.19 in 2024, a 134.1 percent increase. A McChicken went from $1.29 to $3.89, a 201.6 percent hike.

      The price of the beloved Big Mac increased 87.7 percent, from $3.99 to $7.49. An order of 10 McNuggets rose by 68.8 percent, from $4.49 to $7.58. Of the five popular products examined, cheeseburgers saw the largest price increase—going from $1 to $3.15, a 215 percent spike.

      These increases exceed the general average for inflation calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows that prices went up by about 21.5 percent between the end of 2019 and March 2024.

    • Dragon "Rider"(drag)@lemmy.nz
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      24 days ago

      Drag thinks that McDonald’s price gouging its customers is good. It forces people to eat less meat. Drag’s switch to veganism was probably helped by McDonald’s having outrageous prices.

  • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

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

    • Maeve@midwest.social
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      25 days ago

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

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      25 days ago

      Well it’s a lot like all the ISPs taking fucktons of money over 25 years to “roll out fiber” and then just basically pocketing the money.

      Corporations are the real welfare queens.

    • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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      24 days ago

      Beef, the meat kept artificially cheap in the US by subsidies?

      FTFY, you are not alone in this stupidity. “Dutch Trump” Wilders got his votes because the government said that maybe the whole country should not be one big cattle farm.

  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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    25 days 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.

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    24 days 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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      24 days 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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        24 days 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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          24 days 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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            24 days 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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              24 days 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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          23 days 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.

          • JWBananas@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

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

            Wat.

            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.

            Where do you see anything about chicken? Are you under the impression that Tyson only deals in chicken?

            It’s “right fucking there at the beginning.” It says “beef specifically.”

    • Desistance@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

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

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      23 days 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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        23 days 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.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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    24 days 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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          24 days 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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            24 days 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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              23 days 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.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        23 days 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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      23 days 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.

  • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    “This is an absurd accusation. We make money by employing children and undocumented immigrants and violating safety standards, not by colluding on prices.” -US meat industry

  • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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    25 days 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.