this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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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.

(page 2) 39 comments
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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (10 children)

You can't honestly think McDonald's trying to blame their massive price increases solely on their meat providers is valid.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Oh the ironing

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 week ago (8 children)

And the poor animals. Cows are friends not food

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Thank god we have Good guy McDonald’s going after the evil natural beef guys….wait

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

And they'll certainly reduce their prices once they get their supply chain work down right? ... Right?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

Hey now, we should salute McDonalds for keeping Big Beef in check. Those prices trickle down to us! /s

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago

"I was talking to my colluding friends and they said you were doing a collusion on us. What the hell? We're not the poors."

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Someone should sue McDonald's for the same thing. All of their prices (not just for beef) have been massively inflated for their profit. A meal there shouldn't cost $12+ (I've seen as much as $15), it's trash food. I haven't been back in a long time.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wait, McDonald’s uses real beef?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They use the trade marked "Real Beef".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Real Beef™

(May contain raccoon and/or armadillo harvested from American highways.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Armadillo is good eatin’.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

So you're saying they should start selling the McAdillo?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Any bets on how long it will take Fucker Carlson to start deriding McDonalds?

[–] [email protected] 84 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago

Don't forget about screwing their workers.

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I don't know anything about the specifics here, but here's a 5 year graph of futures for live cattle versus beef:

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/live-cattle

If there's collusion to engage in price-fixing by meat packers, I'd expect to see beef prices rising without a corresponding increase in cattle prices.

Beef prices did indeed recently start rising rapidly without a corresponding increase in live cattle prices.

But on the other hand, beef prices are also a lot lower relative to live cattle prices than they were during roughly COVID-19.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

TBF things look pretty different if you go back to 2015 like McDonald's is alleging.

EDIT: To me, it really looks like COVID was the big factor impacting price though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Oh, that's a good point -- missed that in the article. They did say that it started in 2015.

[–] [email protected] 149 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

Exactly my thoughts

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

No one but Ron can gouge on the meat. holding comically large baseball bat

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

At great expense to the health of the people and the climate

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Corporations are the real welfare queens.

not sure I'd say queens, perhaps parasites would best fit that sentence

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