News on Legal issues from the United States

Settlement negotiations are apparently ongoing in the federal potato price-fixing case that wholesalers, retailers and consumers filed six years ago against United Potato Growers of America and others.

Potato farming brothers Aaron Johnson of Northwood and Derek Johnson of Vancouver, B.C., will spend time in federal prison in the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, Minn., and are jointly responsible for restitution of nearly $1 million because of crop insurance fraud.

The makers of Kettle brand chips persuaded a federal judge to dismiss claims that its 'reduced fat sea salt chips' were falsely advertised, though the judge gave the plaintiff leave to amend his complaint.

John Keeling, National Potato Council executive vice president and CEO responds to the passing of the 2014 Farm Bill in US Congress

A prominent North Dakota potato farmer who’s among a group of people accused in an alleged price-fixing scheme is suing his insurance company for failing to cover his defense costs.

Business magnate Ron Offutt formally has denied wrongdoing in a potato price-fixing lawsuit, asking that the case be dismissed or that it go to jury trial.

In a recently-filed lawsuit, Associated Wholesale Grocers claims that the United Potato Growers of America, United Potato state groups and many potato grower-shippers are illegally setting potato prices.

A U.S. federal court jury on Wednesday awarded a Colorado man $7.2 million in damages for developing a chronic condition known as popcorn lung from a chemical used in flavouring microwave popcorn. Jurors agreed with the claims by Wayne Watson, 59, tha...

More than a dozen lawyers who previously took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases against industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani that stock pantry shelves and refrigerators across America. The suits, fi...

McCain Foods in Othello reached a settlement agreement this week with the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) over violations of the plant’s air quality permit, vowing to avoid any similar violations in the future.

Bayer CropScience announced today that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Dow AgroSciences (DAS) based upon DAS's unauthorized use of Bayer patents related to gluf...

The Capper-Volstead Act does not protect United Potato Growers of America from charges it illegally reduced the supply of potatoes in order to raise prices.

Potato farmers are not exempt from antitrust laws that prohibit collusion, including "acreage reductions, production restrictions or collusive crop planning,"according to a federal judge. Chief U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill in Idaho has r...

A mother of two says that McDonald’s uses toys as bait to induce her kids to clamor to go to McDonald’s and to develop a preference for nutritionally poor Happy Meals. With the help of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, today the mom, Monet Parham, is filing a class action lawsuit aimed at stopping McDonald’s use of toys to market directly to young children.

Union Pacific says the dehydrated potato flakes it was hauling caused a costly derailment at its biggest railyard because Idahoan Foods did not properly clean the wheels of its freight cars.

Mister Bee Potato Chip Co. is the target of a lawsuit filed by Utz Quality Foods, claiming the company owes more than $600,000 for shipped goods.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, convinced a U.S. judge that consumers’ claims that its food contributed to childhood obesity were too distinct to be gathered in a single group lawsuit.

An antitrust lawsuit contending Idaho potato growers and others conspired to raise potato prices in the United States by controlling supply has been filed in federal court