A federal judge has granted Tyson Foods’s motion for a summary judgment in an antitrust suit alleging that the company drove a Cumming-based former poultry rendering business, American Proteins Inc. (API), out of the market.
The suit, filed in May 2022, grew out of Tyson’s purchase of API’s poultry rendering assets and operations four years earlier. At that time, Tyson, Wayne Farms and Koch Foods were major raw material suppliers to API.
In its suit, API alleged that Tyson conspired with Wayne and Koch to illegally restrain trade through a boycott or refusal to deal, thus acquiring a monopoly over the rendering market.
But Judge Rick Story ruled earlier this week that API did not establish antitrust injury to prove its claims and granted Tyson’s summary judgement in its entirety.