DENVER — A federal appeals court ruled on July 13 that Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. could face poultry price-fixing charges after previously having them dismissed.

According to a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the investor who initially filed a 2016 complaint against the meat company can bring back his securities-fraud class action case.

Initially, in 2018, US District Judge R. Brooke Jackson dismissed the investor’s motion without prejudice.

Another amended complaint was filed in June 2020, and Pilgrim’s moved to dismiss the case. Then in April 2021, the district court granted the company’s motion to dismiss the latest complaint. 

This latest lawsuit brings up similar allegations that companies and executives were part of a nationwide conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products going back as far back as 2008. The allegations included companies coordinating pricing for restaurants, grocery stores and wholesale chicken buyers.

Pilgrim’s Pride entered a plea agreement in October 2020 with the US Department of Justice over charges the poultry processor engaged in a price-fixing scheme and agreed to pay $110.5 million.

Last October, former Pilgrim’s Pride executives had antitrust charges dismissed against them for their alleged roles in the scheme.