McDonaldâs has some beef with todayâs largest meat packers.
The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industryâs âBig Fourâ â Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company â and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonaldâs accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge âillegally inflatedâ amounts.
This collusion caused the beef market to become âa monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),â McDonaldâs suit reads â later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what âantitrust laws were designed to prevent.â
McDonaldâs alleges that the meat packersâ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companiesâ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.
Said one quasi monopolist to the otherâŠ
What? How on earth is mcdonalds a monopoly in any way?
Maybe not a real monopoly, but a sufficiently big player that usually has no problems of using their buying power to squeeze the blood out of their suppliers.
Iâd be OK with giant corporations as if they were actually competing with each other for consumers and labor, paying their fair share of taxes, and werenât allowed to use their revenue to subvert the will of the people by buying politicians.
The problem is that it takes a strong FTC, IRS, NLRB, FEC to ensure the above things, and we know how Republicans and billionaires feel about that.