Industry Class Action Litigation Update: What Grocery Executives Need to Know

Major antitrust class actions involving food, beverage, and CPG suppliers are moving through the federal courts, with potentially significant financial and competitive implications for independent grocery retailers and wholesalers.

There have been recent developments in major cases including:

• Beverages: Following the dismissal of the FTC’s Robinson-Patman Act case against PepsiCo, private antitrust lawsuits have consolidated in federal courts.
• Eggs: Allegations that major egg producers conspired to inflate egg prices during the recent historic price spikes.
• Beef: Major classes in the long-running beef price-fixing litigation, including a direct-purchaser class covering grocers, wholesalers, and other businesses that purchased beef directly from defendants.

Join Chris Jones, former National Grocers Association chief lobbyist and attorney and founder of Center Market Strategies, LLC, for an executive briefing on these cases, what they could mean for independent grocery retailers and wholesalers, and the legal options available to businesses.

The briefing will focus on the practical questions grocery executives need to understand:

• Who may be eligible to recover?
• How do class actions like these work?
• What does class certification mean?
• What should retailers expect as cases move toward settlement or trial?
• And when should a company consider taking action rather than simply waiting for a class notice?