In an antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats, an agricultural benchmarking service for meat processors, Brattle experts supported the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and its testifying experts by providing economic analyses of Agri Stats’ information-sharing practices and their competitive effects in protein markets. In May 2026, the DOJ and six states reached a settlement imposing significant restrictions on Agri Stats’ information-sharing practices, which was entered as a final judgment by the US District Court for the District of Minnesota in September.

The DOJ retained Brattle to support its testifying experts throughout the investigation and litigation: economics expert Marc Rysman, Professor of Economics at Boston University, and industry expert Jeffrey Dorfman, Hugh C. Kiger Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. Led by Principal Minjae Song, the Brattle team worked closely with DOJ attorneys and economists throughout the matter, supporting the development of expert reports, rebuttal reports, deposition testimony, and trial preparation.

Specifically, the team supported Professor Rysman in defining relevant antitrust markets, assessing collective market power among poultry, pork, and turkey processors, evaluating the competitive effects of Agri Stats’ collection and dissemination of competitively sensitive information, and conducting empirical analyses to estimate the effects of Agri Stats’ information-sharing practices. The team also supported Professor Dorfman in evaluating industry conditions and competitive dynamics in the poultry, pork, and turkey markets.

Under the final judgment, Agri Stats is required to end several anticompetitive information-sharing practices.

Experts Involved