this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
539 points (98.7% liked)

News

23311 readers
3594 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

McDonald’s has some beef with today’s largest meat packers.

The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company — and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonald’s accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge “illegally inflated” amounts.

This collusion caused the beef market to become “a monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),” McDonald’s suit reads — later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what “antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”

McDonald’s alleges that the meat packers’ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companies’ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CountVon@sh.itjust.works 150 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago

Exactly my thoughts

[–] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

Your greed is interfering with my greed, damn you!

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 108 points 1 month ago

McDonald’s has some beef with today’s largest meat packers.

I would have been disappointed if there wasn’t a line like this in the story somewhere. It practically writes itself.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 85 points 1 month ago (8 children)

We'll isn't that the pot calling the kettle black. The restaurant chain famous for jacking prices up while shrinking portion sizes and generally screwing their customers in every way they can doesn't like it when they are getting taken advantage of. Cry me a fucking river. Fuck you McDogsBreath!

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

Don't forget about screwing their workers.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 24 points 1 month ago

I will be thoroughly stunned if the huge settlement they may get actually results in lower prices for customers.

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

To be fair, the screwing flows downriver. If the sourcers start getting greedy, the business has to make up the difference by increasing prices.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 82 points 1 month ago (2 children)

“Company sues for what company does to customers because those profits are theirs

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 1 month ago

"I was talking to my colluding friends and they said you were doing a collusion on us. What the hell? We're not the poors."

[–] Maeve@midwest.social 18 points 1 month ago

The worst part is, the average citizen anywhere in the world can not afford to do this. Only some other evil megacorporations

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 53 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Beef, the meat kept artificially cheap in the US by subsidies?

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 81 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Well it's a lot like all the ISPs taking fucktons of money over 25 years to "roll out fiber" and then just basically pocketing the money.

Corporations are the real welfare queens.

[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 month ago

Corporations are the real welfare queens.

not sure I'd say queens, perhaps parasites would best fit that sentence

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Don't forget they did that several times!

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 8 points 1 month ago

At great expense to the health of the people and the climate

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 43 points 1 month ago

Capitalist system

Big four fixing prices

ShockedPikachu.png

The system is working exactly as it's designed to. I've said it before and I will say it again: captialism only encourages monopolies/cartels - that's the whole point.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If it’s beef, they why have their chicken nuggets also doubled in price in the last couple of years? Oh, this goes back almost a decade you say? So why did you double or triple prices post pandemic?

[–] bitwaba@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dude it's literally right there at the beginning of the post

The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (8 children)

You can't honestly think McDonald's trying to blame their massive price increases solely on their meat providers is valid.

[–] Clasm@ttrpg.network 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It might be valid, but there's no way McD's was harmed. Their customers sure got that price fixing damage passed onto them, though.

[–] GhostFaceSkrilla@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's just over 11$ for 2 large fries. McD should also get sued. I feel like they're just trying pass 100% of the blame on to their suppliers, after they've continued to post record profits year over year. They not only weren't harmed, they've thrived and have been making even more money by price gouging. McD is as much, if not more culpable for inflating prices, than the meat packers.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"This is an absurd accusation. We make money by employing children and undocumented immigrants and violating safety standards, not by colluding on prices." -US meat industry

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 22 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Can we sue McDonald for all that they did to artificially decrease the cost of beef, and the immense harm that was done to the climate as a result?

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Thank god we have Good guy McDonald’s going after the evil natural beef guys….wait

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

And they'll certainly reduce their prices once they get their supply chain work down right? ... Right?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They fucked with McDonalds. Big mistake.

[–] MadBigote@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Said one quasi monopolist to the other...

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What? How on earth is mcdonalds a monopoly in any way?

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago

I'd 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 weren't 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.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 month ago

Hey now, we should salute McDonalds for keeping Big Beef in check. Those prices trickle down to us! /s

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 15 points 1 month ago

I trust what McDonald's is saying in this case. If anyone knows what collusion to inflate prices and fuck over clients looks like, it's the place with the broken soft serve machines.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, McDonald’s uses real beef?

[–] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They use the trade marked "Real Beef".

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Real Beef™

(May contain raccoon and/or armadillo harvested from American highways.)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

No one but Ron can gouge on the meat. holding comically large baseball bat

[–] AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 7 points 1 month ago

Someone should sue McDonald's for the same thing. All of their prices (not just for beef) have been massively inflated for their profit. A meal there shouldn't cost $12+ (I've seen as much as $15), it's trash food. I haven't been back in a long time.

[–] Desistance@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Good. The beef packers already got slapped with a FTC suit for price fixing.

load more comments
view more: next ›