(Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday dismissed antitrust lawsuits accusing several large U.S. pork companies of conspiring to limit the supply of pork in order to inflate prices and their own profits at the expense of consumers and other purchasers.
Chief Judge John Tunheim of the federal court in Minneapolis said the plaintiffs failed to show "parallel conduct" to support an inference that the companies conspired illegally.
The defendants included Hormel Foods Corp (NYSE:HRL), the JBS USA unit of Brazil's JBS SA, WH Group Ltd's Smithfield Foods Inc, and Tyson Foods Inc (NYSE:TSN), among others.