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

20 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2022

See all articles by Minhae Kim

Minhae Kim

Oklahoma State University - Economics

Ryan Mansley

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business

Nathan Miller

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business

Marc Remer

Swarthmore College - Economics Department

Matthew Weinberg

Ohio State University (OSU) - Economics

Date Written: September 8, 2022

Abstract

In December of 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 in order 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: collusion, mergers, antitrust

JEL Classification: L13, K21

Suggested Citation

Kim, Minhae and Mansley, Ryan and Miller, Nathan and Remer, Marc and Weinberg, Matthew, Price-Fixing Allegations in the Canned Tuna Industry: A Look at the Data (September 8, 2022). Antitrust Bulletin, Georgetown McDonough School of Business Research Paper No. 279625, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4279625 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4279625

Minhae Kim

Oklahoma State University - Economics ( email )

238 Business Building
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078

Ryan Mansley

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business ( email )

3700 O Street, NW
Washington, DC 20057
United States

Nathan Miller

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business ( email )

3700 O Street, NW
Washington, DC 20057
United States

Marc Remer

Swarthmore College - Economics Department ( email )

Swarthmore, PA 19081
United States

Matthew Weinberg (Contact Author)

Ohio State University (OSU) - Economics ( email )

410 Arps Hall
1945 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43210-1172
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/matthewcweinberg/

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