Federal Judge Denies Crab Buyers' Motion to Dismiss Crabbers Price-Fixing Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO, January 17, 2025 – In a brief and forceful opinion, federal magistrate judge Alex G. Tse of the Northern District of California denied a motion by dozens of buyers to dismiss price-fixing claims filed on behalf of a putative class of approximately 1,400 Dungeness crabbers in California, Washington, and Oregon.

The plaintiffs allege that buyers of Dungeness crab in the Pacific NW Area engaged in an almost decade-long conspiracy to suppress the prices paid to crabbers. Among the allegations are that the buyers agreed that Pacific Seafood—the largest seafood processor in the country—would set the ex vessel (i.e., directly off the boat) prices to be paid to crabbers at the opening of the season and that they coordinated their pricing thereafter. The plaintiffs further allege that members of the cartel took extraordinary (and at times violent) actions to try to recruit other buyers into their conspiracy. As a result of the buyers’ conspiracy, plaintiffs allege that crabbers were paid far less than they would have for the crab they risk their lives to catch, while the buyers—who are quintessential middlemen, selling the crab on to others—took an enormous, unfair, illegal, and unearned portion of the profit.

The court did not mince words, summarily disposing of the buyers’ arguments one week before their motion was set for hearing. In doing so, it noted that courts “categorically condemn horizontal price-fixing agreements of the kind pleaded here, in which competitors ‘agree to charge the same prices.”

 The plaintiffs’ lead attorney, Stuart G. Gross of Gross Klein PC, observed, “Too often, large companies believe that they, rather than the people doing the work, deserve all of the profit. And, as alleged here, they believe this so strongly that they’re willing to break the law to make it happen. We’re looking forward to getting those profits back into the hardworking hands of the crabbers where they belong.”

Joining Gross Klein PC, as counsel for the plaintiffs, are Freed Kanner London Millen LLC and Schneider Wallace Cotrell Konecky LLP.

A copy of the order is available here.