According to the media report Pacific Seafood is facing law suit alleged of price fixing as well as other “fraudulent schemes” and “miscellaneous dirty tricks. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland by Oregon fishermen Lloyd Whaley and his son, Todd Whaley.
According to the lawsuit Pacific Seafood’s competitors who deviated from prices set by the company have received expletive-fiilled messages. Those messages allegedly came from Frank Dulcich, the company’s owner, and threatened “aggressive retaliation,” the suit claims. Craig Urness, a spokesman for Pacific Seafood, said the lawsuit was without merit and “full of lies and misrepresentation.”
The Whaleys’ lawsuit alleges Pacific Seafood bought out a series of processor competitors, some of which it simply shut down, and has sat on empty or unused parcels of waterfront industrial land in order to lock out potential competition. The Whaleys allege Pacific Seafood now controls between 50 and 75 percent of the market in Pacific whiting, groundfish, Dungeness crab and Pacific coldwater shrimp.
