Fishy Pricing Practices Net Tuna Executives Federal Convictions For Antitrust Violations

Following a price-fixing investigation years in the making, the U.S. Department of Justice has secured two guilty pleas from senior executives of a national seafood company alleged to have conspired to fix the price of canned tuna, and more charges are expected to follow.

Just before the start of the New Year, two senior vice presidents at Bumble Bee Foods pled guilty for their roles in an alleged antitrust conspiracy with other seafood packaging companies to fix the price of canned tuna. According to criminal complaints filed in December 2016 by the Justice Department in California federal court, the alleged conspirators "engaged in conversations and discussions and attended meetings with representatives of other major packaged-seafood-producing firms," "agreed and reached mutual understandings during these conversations, discussions, and meetings, to fix, raise, and maintain the prices of packaged seafood sold in the United States," and "negotiated prices and