Several Atlantic fish farming companies face a £382 million ($482 million) class action on behalf of millions of U.K. consumers who accuse the businesses of running a cartel to artificially inflate salmon prices.

Salmon Farmers £382M Class Action : Waterside Files Claim

Waterside, a company incorporated to bring the proceedings, said on Friday it filed a claim in the Competition Appeal Tribunal accusing the seafood companies of unlawfully colluding to raise prices for farmed Atlantic salmon. The cartel led to salmon prices being up to 20% higher than they should have been, and this cost was passed along to consumers, according to the claim.

Consumer Advocate Speaks Out

Waterside director and consumer advocate Anne Heal accused the companies of conspiring to "raid the wallets of hard-working shoppers."

"This action aims to seek fair redress for the millions of British consumers who we say spent years overpaying for one of the U.K.'s favorite and highly nutritious foods," Heal said. "By bringing this collective action, I want to give a voice to affected consumers across the U.K., and see them properly compensated for their losses."

Salmon Farmers £382M Class Action : The Class Action Details

The opt-out claim seeks up to £382 million for up to 44 million consumers who bought certain farmed Atlantic salmon products from U.K. retailers between October 2015 and May 2019. The proposed defendants are Mowi, its subsidiary Mowi Holdings, SalMar, Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms, and Grieg, who are major suppliers of farmed Atlantic salmon to U.K. supermarkets, grocery stores, and food manufacturers.

The claimants allege that the six companies manipulated benchmark prices for Norwegian Atlantic salmon by using related entities to purchase it at inflated prices, regardless of demand or levels of production. The manipulation meant that most other Atlantic salmon suppliers also sold their product at higher prices, even though they were not part of the cartel, according to the claim.

Alleged Price Manipulation

The businesses unlawfully exchanged commercially sensitive information in emails, meetings, and "working dinners" about the price and volume of salmon sales, according to the claim. The unlawful overcharging continued until the European Commission raided the offices of several Atlantic salmon farmers in 2019 as part of a major investigation into price-fixing, the claim said.

European Commission Investigation

Europe's competition enforcer announced in January that it suspected several Norwegian fish farming companies participated in a scheme to manipulate competition in the European Union. The commission's claims are related to almost 80% of all farmed Atlantic salmon exported from Norway, which is responsible for more than half of farmed Atlantic salmon production worldwide, the agency said. These do not include frozen farmed Atlantic salmon or processed salmon products.

Waterside said on Friday that some of the companies had already made multimillion-dollar payments to settle class actions brought by consumers and other buyers in the U.S. and Canada.

Salmon Farmers £382M Class Action : Additional Legal Actions

This proposed class action follows a separate £675 million claim being pursued at the CAT on behalf of supermarkets. The retailers — including food giants Asda, Iceland, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Aldi, Co-op, and Ocado — in a February claim accused 13 seafood businesses of fixing salmon prices in the U.K.

Waterside said its claim identifies consumers, rather than retailers, as the principal victims of the cartel. Waterside said it would argue that retailers passed on the majority of price-fixing onto their customers, who suffered most of the damage by the cartel.

Defendants' Responses

A Mowi spokesperson said the company "has not been involved in any anti-competitive conduct and believes that the allegations are unfounded." Grieg Chief Executive Andreas Kvame said the business "denies any antitrust infringements or anti-competitive behavior and will exercise all its rights of defense." The other defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The claimants are represented by Sarah Abram KC and Matthew Kennedy of Brick Court Chambers, and Camilla Cockerill of 4 New Square Chambers, instructed by Patrick Boylan of Simmons & Simmons LLP. Counsel information for the defendants and case information were not immediately available.