Pacific Seafood Group has successfully fought off a class-action lawsuit by Oregon commercial fishermen that once seemed a major threat to the Clackamas-based company.
The fisherman claimed that Pacific used its immense market clout to suppress the price it paid for groundfish, Dungeness crab, shrimp and other products. They initially sought as much as $520 million in damages and that Pacific be broken up.
What they will get instead is no monetary damages whatsover and a Pacific that remains intact. Pacific did make several "pro-competitive" pledges such as a promise not to concentrate its in-house fleet of fishing vessels in a single port or on a single commodity.
"Rather than go through the risk of trial and appeal, we decided that securing this deal helps establish more competitive conditions immediately rather than three years from now," said Mike Haglund, the Portland lawyer who conceived of and led the fishermen's case.
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