Photo: Diego M. RadzinschiStarKist Ordered to Pay $100M Criminal Fine for Antitrust Violations
Owned by South Korean company Dongwon Industries, Starkist, whose U.S. headquarters is in Pittsburgh, agreed to plead guilty to felony antitrust charges last October.
September 11, 2019 at 06:24 PM
3 minute read
A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday ordered StarKist Co. to pay a $100 million criminal fine to settle charges that the company conspired with other companies to fix the price of canned tuna sold in the United States.
The company also received a 13-month term of probation.
Owned by South Korean company Dongwon Industries, StarKist, whose U.S. headquarters is in Pittsburgh, agreed to plead guilty to felony antitrust charges last October. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California ordered the company to pay the statutory maximum fine for its participation in the conspiracy from as early as November 2011 through at least December 2013, rejecting the company's request for a fine reduction, according to the U.S. Department of Justice news release.
"Today's result demonstrates our commitment to enforcing the antitrust laws aggressively against companies that fix prices," said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in a statement.
In a statement released the same day, StarKist president and CEO Andrew Choe said the company had cooperated with the U.S. Justice Department probe and accepted responsibility. "StarKist is committed to being a socially responsible company and doing the right thing," he added. "We will continue to conduct our business with the utmost transparency and integrity. We have addressed the necessary actions required in this agreement and we will continue to strengthen related compliance best practices."
An ongoing federal antitrust investigation into the packaged-seafood industry conducted by the DOJ's Antitrust Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in a total of six charges, according to the Justice Department.
In January, StarKist agreed to a $20.5 million settlement with Walmart Inc. to resolve antitrust claims related to a conspiracy with other tuna companies to fix prices on their products.
Bumble Bee Foods pleaded guilty in 2017 to a price-fixing scheme and paid a $25 million fine. The conspiracy came to light when a bid by Thai Union Group Chicken of the Sea to buy San Diego-based Bumble Bee failed in 2015, according to court records, The Associated Press reported.
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