Rabobank Defeats Chicken Buyers’ Bid to Revive Antitrust Claims

Rabobank, a lender to poultry producers, has been dismissed from a chicken broiler price-fixing case after the Seventh Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision that the bank did not facilitate cooperation among the producers.

The suit, brought by Amory Investments LLC and chicken buyers including Campbell Soup Co., Sysco Corp. and Target Corp., accused the lender of serving as a conduit for a price-fixing arrangement.

The plaintiffs pointed to emails among Rabobank managers and employees discussing how lower output and higher prices in the broiler-chicken market would improve the bank’s chance of collecting its loans. But those emails weren’t ...