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.

  • Flying Squid
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    -32 months ago

    You can get mad at me, but I’m far from the only one who thought that’s what you were suggesting.

      • Flying Squid
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        02 months ago

        I’m pretty sure being understood is, in fact, the responsibility of the person making a comment.

          • Flying Squid
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            12 months ago

            If just you were? It could be either of our fault and would depend on the context.

            In this case, it isn’t just me who misunderstood. It was a significant number of people. So it’s a bit silly to say that it’s tons of other people’s fault and not yours when you aren’t understood.