Darden Restaurants Inc. -- one of the largest restaurant companies and owner of popular chains Olive Garden, Eddie V’s, LongHorn Steakhouse and several others -- filed a lawsuit Jan. 25 with the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois against some of the major U.S. chicken producers, including Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, George’s Inc. and Perdue Foods, for alleged price-fixing from 2008 to 2016. The case follows several other similar lawsuits that were filed in 2018 against many of the same companies.

In the lawsuit, Darden alleges that producers conspired to raise prices by destroying breeder hens and eggs to reduce output and limit supply.

The lawsuit states, “This is a case about how a group of America’s chicken producers reached illegal agreements and restrained trade beginning at least as early as 2008 through at least as late as 2016.”

The lawsuit further claims that Georgia Dock prices, which were nixed in 2016 by the Georgia Department of Agriculture after skepticism arose about its accuracy, were manipulated by the large poultry companies submitting prices.

In addition to the defendants named above, other defendants include: Harrison Poultry Inc., Simmons Foods Inc., O.K. Industries Inc., JCG Foods of Alabama LLC, Koch Foods Inc., House of Raeford Farms Inc., George's Farms Inc., Mountaire Farms LLC, Foster Farms LLC, O.K. Farms Inc., Koch Meat Co. Inc., Foster Poultry Farms Inc., Peco Foods Inc., Wayne Farms LLC, JCG Foods of Georgia LLC, Fieldale Farms Corp., Mar-Jac Poultry Inc. and Norman W. Fries Inc., d/b/a Claxton Poultry Farms Inc.

Darden Restaurants owns and operates upwards of 1,700 restaurants with more than 180,000 employees.