Wisconsin Attorney General Adds Name to Antitrust Complaint Against Dairy Farmers of America
Monday, May 4th, 2020 -- 10:03 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -Wisconsin's attorney general has added his name to an antitrust complaint and proposed final judgment against Dairy Farmers of America, which recently acquired Dean Foods' property out of bankruptcy.On Friday, Josh Kaul announced that he, along with the U.S. Department of Justice and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, filed the complaint in the Northern District of Illinois. The order requires that DFA divest its plants in DePere and Harvard, Illinois, to a buyer within 30 days. "I am very happy that we've been able to help protect competition in the dairy industry here in Wisconsin," Kaul said. "While strong competition in the market is always important, it's incredibly important now, as we're living through a pandemic. Our supply chain must have robust competition to ensure a continued supply of milk to those who need it, and milk producers--who were facing a crisis in the dairy industry even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, need to be able to sell milk on fair terms."
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, DFA is required to divest the intellectual property associated with the DePere facility, including the exclusive right to using the Dean's name in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and licenses for the TruMoo and DairyPure brand names nationwide. Last month, a U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas approved the sale of Dean Foods plants to DFA for $433 million. That decision came five months after Dean, at the time the largest dairy processor in the country, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The U.S. Department of Justice will approve the buyer of the DePere and Harvard plants.
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