Case Description
The State of Minnesota alleged that Land O’Lakes was involved in a bid-rigging and market allocation scheme on milk contracts with more than 140 Minnesota pubic school districts in the southwestern and northwestern parts of the State. The State alleged that Land O’Lakes, during parts of the 1980s and early 1990s, agreed with other dairies to divide public school districts so that Land O’Lakes would submit the winning bid for milk contracts with certain school districts and would submit complementary, or non-competitive, bids in other school districts. In an Assurance of Discontinuance Land O’Lakes agreed to pay $287,730 in restitution to the affected school districts and attorneys fees and costs. Land O’Lakes also agreed to refrain from bid-rigging in the future. The settlement arose from an investigation initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and undertaken jointly with the Minnesota Attorney General. Ultimately, Minnesota settled with three dairies in the school milk cases, and the bulk of the $889,880 resulting from those settlements was distributed to the impacted school districts in southwest and northwest Minnesota.