You Could Become a Cash Cow From Settled Class-Action Lawsuit Against Dairy Producers

Scores of Americans who purchased milk or a dairy product between 2003 and 2011 can become a cash cow thanks to attorneys who settled a class action lawsuit against dairy producers called Fresh Milk Products Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit. As a result of this, many Americans might receive a class action milk rebate.

The suit was generated in 2011 by Compassion Over Killing (COK), an animal advocacy organization with a mission is to end animal abuse. They uncovered the mass slaughter of 500,000 young cows known as a “dairy herd retirement program,” by a trade group Cooperatives Working Together led by the National Milk Producers Federation, and including Dairy Farmers of America, and Land O’Lakes.

According to their findings, “this program involved buying out individual, often small, dairy farmers and instructing them to kill their entire dairy herds, mostly young cows, in a concerted effort to reduce the nation’s milk supply, thus artificially — and illegally — inflating the price of dairy products,” including yogurt, cream and cottage cheese.

On September 26, 2011 COK filed a complaint that has since gotten justice in the hefty amount of a $52,000,000 settlement pool.

The attorney for the plaintiffs, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, settled the class action lawsuit on August 24, 2016 in the District Court for the Northern District of California. In a press release for the firm, Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, rejoiced in their win.

He said, “The biggest dairy producers in the country, responsible for almost 70 percent of the nation’s milk, conspired together in a classic price-fixing scheme, forcing higher prices for a basic food item onto honest consumers and families. We’re pleased that this settlement will return some of what consumers lost due to this massive fraud perpetrated for ill-gotten gains.”

How has this case affected the countless slaughter of innocent animals? The slaughtering and defendants’ “Herd Retirement Program” ended in 2010.

“We hope that this lawsuit serves as a guard against the producers of milk in the United States from doing this again,” Jeff Friedman, an attorney who with Hagens Berman’s legal team, wrote to Your Daily Dish.

Compassion Over Killing counsel Cheryl Leahy told The Huffington Post, “This cow-killing program exploited both the animals and the consumers, and resulted in the early deaths of half a million cows. This settlement sends a message to the dairy industry that they cannot harm people and animals out of simple greed without any accountability.”

Here’s how you can collect your class action milk rebate. You can file a claim on the settlement website by January 31, 2017. According to the website, in order to collect, you must confirm you are a resident of at least one of these states during at least part of 2003 to the present: Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wisconsin.

Next you must confirm your purchase of “milk or fresh milk products, including cream, half & half, yogurt, cottage cheese, cream cheese, or sour cream,” and describe your purchase. Purchases must have been made at the grocery store or other retailer purchase — for personal consumption and not for resale.

Individuals who participate in the suit may receive between $10 to $20, or as high as between $280-$560 for the class action milk rebate. It will be deposited directly into their online account of choice.