Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the U.S. Department of Justice secured a settlement with agricultural data broker Agri Stats, Inc. for facilitating the sharing of competitively sensitive information among meat processors, reducing competition and raising prices for chicken, pork, and turkey. Under the settlement, Agri Stats will implement industry-wide changes to its information distribution practices and make monetary payments to participating states. The settlement aims to restore competition in the agriculture industry and lower grocery prices for consumers.
Agri Stats, Inc. must implement significant changes to its information distribution practices, including restrictions on the type of competitively sensitive information it can share and how it distributes such information, to restore competition in the meat processing industry. The company will also pay monetary penalties to the states involved in the settlement. These changes are industry-wide and aimed at preventing future anticompetitive coordination among meat processors.
In-house legal teams should review all vendor agreements with data brokers, particularly those in the agricultural or food processing industries, to ensure restrictions on the sharing of competitively sensitive business information, including costs, pricing strategies, and operational data. Vendor contracts should include explicit prohibitions on sharing such information with the vendor’s other clients, especially direct competitors of the contracting entity, to avoid antitrust liability. Additionally, data processing agreements should include antitrust compliance clauses requiring vendors to certify they do not facilitate anticompetitive information sharing, and outline remedies for breaches of these restrictions. Teams should also review customer agreements with meat processors or agricultural clients to ensure their own data sharing practices do not run afoul of antitrust laws.
Entity
Agri Stats, Inc.
Industry
Data Broker"Agri Stats, Inc. (“Agri Stats”)"
"May 08, 2026"
"Attorney General Ken Paxton"
"secured a monumental settlement"
"Agri Stats facilitated the sharing of costs and other competitively-sensitive information among meat processors. This information allowed competitors to closely monitor one another’s operations and pricing strategies, which reduced competition and enabled coordinated price increases across the industry."
"Agri Stats has agreed to make industry-shifting changes to how it distributes information and what information it can distribute. The company will also make monetary payments to the states involved."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated an investigation into Drone Nerds, LLC over its partnership with CCP-affiliated Anzu Robotics, which markets drones with concealed surveillance capabilities and unauthorized data collection risks. Drone Nerds is accused of deceiving Texas consumers by misrepresenting Anzu’s ties to China and falsely claiming the drones are U.S.-based with secure privacy practices. The investigation is being conducted under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, with a Civil Investigative Demand issued to gather evidence of consumer deception and privacy violations.
$7.4B
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the effective date of a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma, Inc. and the Sackler family over their role in fueling the opioid crisis. Texas will receive $286.5 million from the settlement, bringing the state’s total opioid recovery funds to over $3 billion. The settlement includes permanent bans on Sackler opioid sales in the U.S., public release of 30 million company documents, and distribution of funds for addiction treatment and prevention over 15 years.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reached an agreement with Samsung Electronics America, Inc. to stop collecting Automated Content Recognition (ACR) data from smart TVs without consumers' express consent. Samsung must update its smart TVs to provide clear and conspicuous disclosures and obtain consent before any data collection, ensuring Texans are informed and in control of their viewing data.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Shein US Services LLC for selling toxic products and exposing consumers' personal data to the Chinese Communist Party. The lawsuit seeks monetary penalties under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. This action is part of a broader effort to protect Texans from health risks and CCP influence.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against PDD Holdings, Inc. and WhaleCo Inc., doing business as Temu, for deceptive marketing and unlawful covert harvesting of Texans’ personal data that was exposed to the Chinese Communist Party. The suit alleges Temu functions as a 'trojan horse' e-commerce app that bypasses security protocols to create a backdoor into users’ private data, which is stored on servers in China. The lawsuit seeks monetary relief under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including up to $10,000 per violation and up to $250,000 per violation targeting consumers aged 65 or older.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Temu (PDD Holdings, Inc. and WhaleCo Inc.) for deceptive marketing practices and illegally harvesting Texans' personal data, which was then exposed to the Chinese Communist Party. The suit seeks monetary damages under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, with potential penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and higher for seniors. This is part of a broader effort to hold CCP-aligned companies accountable.