JBS Pork Cartel Settlement Worth $20 Million Gets Early Approval

The pork consumers leading a proposed price-fixing class action over an alleged industrywide cartel scheme won preliminary approval from a federal judge in Minneapolis for a $20 million settlement with meatpacking giant JBS SA.

Judge John R. Tunheim gave his tentative blessing to the deal, which would resolve claims brought by “consumer indirect purchasers” in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

“The court finds that the proposed settlement agreement has been negotiated at arm’s length, falls within the range of possible approval and is hereby preliminarily approved,” Tunheim wrote April 2.

Wholesalers previously reached a $24.5 ...