Price-Fixing Allegations in the Canned Tuna Industry: A Look at the Data

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X221150372
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X221150372

The Antitrust Bulletin

2023, Vol. 68(1) 154 –163

© The Author(s) 2023

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0003603X221150372

journals.sagepub.com/home/abx

Article

Price-Fixing Allegations in the Canned

Tuna Industry: A Look at the Data

Minhae Kim*, Nathan H. Miller**, Ryan Mansley**,

Marc Remer***, and Matthew C. Weinberg****

Abstract

In December 2014, Thai Union, the parent company of Chicken of the Sea canned tuna announced

that it had reached an agreement to acquire Bumble Bee tuna from Lion Capital. In the course of

standard merger review, the Department of Justice subpoenaed the merging parties as well as the

parent company of StarKist to investigate possible collusion among the major producers of canned

tuna. This led to several class action lawsuits and a criminal conviction for price fixing. This paper

describes how these firms were alleged to have colluded and uses retail scanner data to document

how prices and promotional activity changed while the cartel was in operation. Avenues for future

research are discussed.

Keywords

canned tuna, alleged cartel, price-fixing, price promotions

I. Introduction

In December 2015, two of the three main producers of canned tuna in the United States abandoned their

proposed merger.1 Thai Union’s and Bumble Bee’s decision to terminate the merger agreement was not

simply due to concerns raised by the Department of Justice (DOJ) about potentially anti-competitive

effects of the transaction. Rather, during its standard merger review, the DOJ discovered a cartel dating

back at least four years. Ensuing litigation featured guilty pleas from Bumble Bee, StarKist, and a

number of individual employees. Thai Union may have received Type B leniency from the DOJ. One

executive plead not guilty, was convicted, and sentenced to prison. Private litigation pitting the producers

of canned tuna against an assortment of wholesalers and retailers is ongoing.

*Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

**Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

***Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, USA

****The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

Marc Remer, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA.

Email: mremer1@swarthmore.edu

1150372ABXXXX10.1177/0003603X221150372The Antitrust BulletinKim et al.

research-article2023

1. U.S. Department of Justice, Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee Abandon Tuna Merger After Justice Department Expresses

Serious Concerns, Justice News, Dec. 3, 2015, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chicken-sea-and-bumble-bee-abandon

-tuna-merger-after-justice-department-expresses-serious.