TRI-CITIES, Wash.–Four potato companies have been accused of price gouging since 2021. Three of them have locations in Washington,.
Lamb Weston, Cavendish Farms, McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot Company, make up over 95% of potato sales in the United States, and are now facing multiple class action lawsuits claiming they shared information with each other for the purpose of price fixing.
One lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, claims these businesses abused their dominance in the potato industry to heavily inflate prices of frozen potato products to raise prices.
Another lawsuit filed on Monday claims they did so by raising prices at almost the exact same time, and products have been inflated since January 2021.
Other lawsuits claim the companies raised their prices of products while their production costs went down, resulting in a 47% increase in potato sales.
A Lamb Weston spokesperson sent a statement saying that the company believes these claims are without merit, and they will continue to defend their position as the lawsuit continues.
The other three companies have not spoken on the topic yet.
