The Defendants Golden Peanut, Birdsong, and Olam, are peanut shellers. Plaintiffs in this lawsuit are farmers who sell their raw, harvested peanuts to shellers, which in turn process these peanuts and sell them to manufacturers of products such as peanut butter and candy.
This lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Defendants entered into a conspiracy to pay depressed prices to the farmers during the Class Period, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act 15 U.S.C. § 1. This lawsuit focuses on runner peanuts, the most common type of peanut grown in the United States. In other words, Plaintiffs and the Class allege that Golden Peanut, Birdsong, and Olam violated federal antitrust law by conspiring with one another to depress the prices paid to farmers for runner peanuts, causing farmers to be underpaid for their runner peanuts.
All Defendants have denied and continue to deny Plaintiffs’ Claims and have asserted numerous defenses to those Claims. However, Plaintiffs have reached Settlements with all of the Defendants, for a total of $102,750,000. Settling Defendants admit no liability, but chose to settle to avoid further the expenses, burdens, and risks associated with continuing this litigation.
