Tyson, Pilgrim’s $155 Million Chicken Cartel Deal Gets Early OK

The chicken wholesalers leading a proposed price-fixing class action over an alleged industrywide scheme won preliminary approval from a federal judge in Chicago for a $155 million settlement with Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA subsidiary Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.

Judge Thomas M. Durkin gave his tentative blessing to the deal, which calls for payments of $75 million by Pilgrim’s and $80 million by Tyson. His ruling Tuesday came the same day Pilgrim’s separately became the first chicken processor to plead guilty to price fixing, accepting a $108 million criminal fine.

If ultimately approved, the civil settlement will resolve antitrust allegations ...