Although previous antitrust lawsuits allege StarKist squealed in a Department of Justice investigation, several amended lawsuits now filed allege Chicken of the Sea is the whistle-blower.
New York-based Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative was the first to file an antitrust lawsuit alleging the three biggest US tuna producers -- Starkist, Bumble Bee and Tri-Union Seafoods, which sells Chicken of the Sea tuna -- colluded and conspired to keep prices up over the past four years.
When it first filed the class-action lawsuit in August, Olean mentioned an ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation in which Tri-Union owner Thai Union (TU) suspended the share offer for the financing of the Bumble Bee acquisition amid the DOJ's antitrust investigation of the packaged seafood industry in the United States.
Tri-Union
