On Tuesday, the fast-food giant told franchisees it had informed Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride, which is owned by meat-industry giant JBS SA, that it will pursue damages related to allegations the brands illegally conspired to raise chicken prices, according to two people who were not authorized to speak on the record about the matter.
The chicken giants have been embroiled in a price-fixing scandal for years. Tyson, Pilgrim's, and other major chicken companies have been accused of conspiring to fix prices on chickens from 2008 to at least early 2019.
"McDonald's distribution centers (DCs) may have been victims of the purported conspiracy, unknowingly purchasing broiler chickens from Tyson and Keystone Foods (now owned by Tyson) at alleged wrongfully-inflated prices, which our DCs then resold to McDonald's and franchisees," Marion Gross, McDonald's chief supply chain officer, and Angie Steele, the interim US general counsel wrote in the memo that was sent on Tuesday.