Beazley Insurance Company, Inc. v. Foster Poultry Farms

I. Background

A. In re Broiler Chicken In 2016, several actions were filed against Foster Farms and other major chicken producers in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. (Docket Entry No. 41-1 at 2–623). The actions were consolidated into In re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation, Case No.

16-cv-08637 (“In re Broiler Chicken”). (Id. at 629). The plaintiffs comprise four distinct groups: (1) a class of direct purchasers of broiler chickens; (2) a class of indirect purchasers who sold broiler chickens; (3) a class of individuals who purchased broiler chickens; and (4) over eight dozen direct-action plaintiffs who filed their own complaints. (Docket Entry No. 38-1 at ¶ 5). The plaintiffs all allege that Foster Farms and other chicken producers conspired to “fix and raise prices of broiler chickens,” (Docket Entry No. 41-1 at ¶ 1); that the price-fixing conspiracy has had the “principal purpose and effect” of “reduc[ing] the supply of Broilers, eliminat[ing] competition, and increas[ing] the price of Broilers purchased by consumers at retail,” (id. at ¶ 2); and that the chicken producers made “numerous misleading public statements” to…