MINNEAPOLIS — US District Judge John R. Tunheim affirmed a magistrate judge’s denial of Agri Stats’ motion to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to identify specific data that was allegedly used in anticompetitive data-sharing.

The DOJ along with six state attorneys general contend in the antitrust lawsuit that Agri Stats supplied confidential information to major US chicken, pork and turkey processors in a conspiracy to fix prices.

Agri Stats is a subscription service that collects data from its subscribers, compiles that data into reports and distributes those reports to subscribers, in addition to advising subscribers on how to use the reports, according to court documents.

In August 2024, Agri Stats served its first set of interrogatories in the case, requesting that the DOJ specifies each data field or column in any Agri Stats reports that contain the alleged competitive sensitive information.

In a two-page response to the interrogatory, the DOJ objected to the request and explained that its claims do not rest on individual fields in Agri Stats reports but rather allege that the information can be used in conjunction with other Agri Stats information.

Magistrate Judge John F. Docherty found the DOJ’s argument “adequately responsive,” court documents said. As such, he denied Agri Stats’ request.

Agri Stats then appealed the judge’s order.

On June 3, the US District Court of the District of Minnesota agreed with Docherty’s decision, finding no error in the rulemaking.