chicken
A man giving fried chicken leg or drumstick

Tasty News: You May Be Entitled to Money If You Ate Chicken in the Past Decade

Here’s the best news you’re gonna hear all day: If you are one of the billions of people on earth who has eaten chicken in the past ten years, you may be entitled to a payout. That’s right, overdoing it on the fried chicken has finally paid off.

It turns out a few major players in Big Chicken may have colluded to fix market prices from 2009-2020 to beef up profits – which is weird because chicken from the accused companies is like 99 cents a pound. Either way, there was enough dirt on these guys to prompt a major class-action lawsuit calling foul play. And while the defendants in the case are too chicken to plead guilty, they are putting up a $181 million settlement fund to wash their hands off this whole stinking mess.

Brent W. Johnson, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, who is about to be filthy rich had this to say: “This represents a significant recovery for consumers who were harmed by the defendants conspiring to raise the price of chicken in grocery stores and other retailers.”

The companies involved in the settlement include Mar-Jac Poultry, Peco Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Fieldale Farms Corporation, and Tyson Foods. Dozens of other alleged co-conspirators who are named in the suit opted not to settle – meaning there could be a whole lot more chicken where that came from.

But don’t celebrate just yet. The settlement still has to be approved by an Illinois judge on December 20. Also, if you upgraded your chicken purchases to kosher, halal, free-range, or organic, you’re not entitled to any monies – which is ironic because you’ve probably spent a fortune on chicken dinners over the years.

A statement from the defendants says they “agreed to settle this action to avoid the further expense….and the risks inherent in uncertain complex litigation and trial, and thereby to put to rest this controversy.”

Sounds to us like they decided to play chicken with the law and lost.

Cover Photo: Atstock Productions (Getty Images)

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