DOJ MAKES STATEMENT OF INTEREST IN DFA CASE

by Nicole Heslip Source: Brownfield Ag News The Department of Justice has filed a brief in an ongoing Dairy Farmers of America federal court case with Northeast dairy farmers. The Department says the cooperative’s actions are inconsistent with legal protections for co-ops in the Capper-Volstead Act and is not safeguarded from antitrust laws as DFA argues. Ben Gotschall with the Organization for Competitive Markets tells Brownfield the purpose of agriculture antitrust laws is to protect producers and they’re pleased to Read More …

DOJ Antitrust Division Weighs in on Farmers’ Suit Against DFA

by Chris Clayton Source: Progressive Farmer Ag Policy Blog The U.S. Department of Justice has come down on the side of a group of more than 100 dairy farmers in a federal lawsuit against the country’s largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America. As initially reported by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, a group of 116 Northeastern dairy farmers rejected to take part in a prior lawsuit settlement against DFA in 2016 and instead pressed their case Read More …

BREAKING: Department of Justice Files Amicus Brief in Dairy Farmers of America Lawsuit

On July 27th, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against Dairy Farmers of America, the United States’ largest dairy cooperative. The lawsuit, filed in Vermont U.S. District Court, alleges that DFA and other cooperatives agreed not to compete for each other’s farmer-members, conspired to share payment information in order to discourage competition and depress prices, and maintained those low prices market-wide by entering into supply agreements with Dean Foods Read More …