November 26, 2024 — The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California has approved settlement agreements between plaintiffs StarKist and Bumble Bee in lawsuits related to alleged price-fixing of canned tuna.
End-payer and direct-purchaser plaintiffs sued Chicken of the Sea, Bumble Bee, and StarKist in the U.S. for their alleged connections to a price-fixing scheme for canned tuna.
August 23, 2023 — A federal judge has ruled former Bumble Bee Foods owner Lion Capital can be held liable in a civil lawsuit alleging it was involved in a price-fixing conspiracy involving the so-called “big three” U.S. tuna companies – Bumble Bee, Starkist, and Chicken of the Sea.
The U.K.-based private equity firm purchased Bumble Bee in 2010 and operated it until it was sold out of bankruptcy to FCF Co. in 2019, following its guilty plea to a charge of price-fixing, forcing it to pay a USD 25 million (EUR 22.6 million) fine and millions more in civil damages.
April 4, 2023 — A report on Climate Change in the Western Pacific recently released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council drills down on the effects of climate change on American Samoa and warns that the loss of StarKist and the tuna industry due to the implications of climate change would be devastating not only to American Samoa but also to other Pacific communities it supports — particularly Samoa, Niue, Tokelau and Tonga.
In the report, the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant, says American Samoa’s sea level rise of 2.64.6 feet by 2100 would severely impact coastal infrastructure.
As reported earlier by Samoa News, infrastructure in American Samoa is extremely vulnerable to sea level and was worsened by the rapid sinking of the islands, triggered by the 2009 Samoa earthquake and predicted to last for decades. This subsidence is estimated to lead to roughly twice as much sea level rise by 2060 as what was already predicted from climate change alone.
“As sea level continues to rise, the future of businesses like the StarKist Samoa cannery, located at sea level in Pago Pago Harbor, are in question,” stated the report.
“Loss of this industry due to the implications of climate change would be devastating to American Samoa and the communities it supports.”
Tuna exports from American Samoa are valued at approximately $353 million per year, with canned tuna from StarKist American Samoa comprising 99.5% of the total, the report details.
August 10, 2022 — Starkist has followed through on its pledge to appeal a decision made in the class-action civil lawsuit filed against it for its role in fixing the prices of canned tuna sold in the United States between 2011 and 2013.
On Monday, 8 August, 2022, Starkist filed a petition at the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to strike down a decision made by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, U.S.A., which ruled in a 9-2 decision in April 2022 to uphold the class certification completed in 2019 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Judge Janis L. Sammartino.
April 28, 2021 — Former Bumble Bee Foods executives Kenneth Worsham and Walter Scott Cameron were each sentenced to three years’ probation for their roles in a conspiracy to fix the price of canned tuna sold in the United States between 2011 and 2013.
Both were sentenced by Judge Edward M. Chen of the Northern District of California on Wednesday, 28 April, and both received more lenient sentences than typical for the level of crimes to which they pleaded guilty because they served as key witnesses in the U.S. government’s case against former Bumble Bee Foods CEO Chris Lischewski, who is currently serving a 40-month prison sentence. Former StarKist executive Stephen Hodge also served as a witness in the U.S. government’s case against Lischewski, and received leniency in a non-custodial, probationary sentence issued by Chen in January.
April 26, 2021 — Starkist is now sourcing all of its tuna and salmon from sustainable sources.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based company is now sourcing 100 percent of its tuna and salmon from suppliers that meet the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable fishing or are working toward certification, including those participating in a comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP), the tuna supplier said in a press release.
April 19, 2021 — Chicken of the Sea is nearing two settlements in civil litigation launched against it in relation to its role in fixing the prices of canned tuna.
The El Segundo, California, U.S.A.-based company and its parent firm, Thai Union, have agreed in principle on two separate agreements with those who claim to have overpaid for tuna it sold between 2011 and 2015 – allegations that stem from a criminal case in which Chicken of the Sea served as a whistleblower.
January 22, 2021 — Stephen L. Hodge says he’s sorry for his role in the price-fixing scandal that has rocked the U.S. canned tuna industry, resulting in massive fines for two of the companies involved, including his former employer, and a prison sentence for one of the scheme’s leaders.
Hodge, a former senior vice president of sales for StarKist who testified on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the criminal price-fixing cases against StarKist, as well as Bumble Bee Foods and former Bumble Bee President and CEO Chris Lischewski, avoided jail time in his sentencing, which took place 13 January.
November 24, 2020 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has added new labor and social standards to its requirements for member companies, which include tuna processors, traders, importers, transporters, marketers, and more.
The new standard – Conservation Measure 9.1 Public Policy on Social and Labor Standards – will require any business associated with ISSF to develop, and publish, social and labor standards and/or a sourcing policy that applies to the entire supply chain, which addresses forced labor; child labor; freedom of association; wages, benefits, and employment contracts; working hours; health and safety; discrimination, harassment, and abuse; and grievance mechanisms. The policy must be public – meaning it must be at a minimum available to the general public.
June 17, 2020 — The former chief executive officer and president of Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, one of the world’s largest producers of canned tuna and other seafood products, has been sentenced to 40 months in jail for his leadership role in a three-year antitrust conspiracy to fix the prices of canned tuna. Christopher Lischewski’s sentence, which also includes a $100,000 criminal fine, comes after a San Francisco jury found him guilty in December of helping to orchestrate the scheme, which also involved the StarKist and Chicken of the Sea companies.
“The conduct was deliberate, it was planned, it was sustained, over a three-year period,” said Judge Edward M. Chen, according to reporting from Seafood Source. “This was not a rash act of having to commit a crime under distress, under episodic circumstances as we see sometimes, this was a contemplated and deliberate plan.”
Moreover, he said, the scheme targeted poor people.