The Justice Department is expanding its antitrust investigation into the U.S. beef industry to include eight major grocery chains, seeking information about whether retailers have engaged in price manipulation as beef prices reach record levels.
The DOJ announced Tuesday that it sent letters to Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Albertsons, Aldi, Ahold Delhaize USA, Costco, and Amazon seeking data on beef sales, pricing, costs, margins, and purchasing practices.
In a letter to Aldi dated July 14, the DOJ said it was seeking information about the company’s “retail sales and prices, wholesale purchases and prices, costs and margins for beef products, pricing and purchasing strategy,” and its analysis of trends in wholesale and retail beef prices.
The expanded investigation comes as the Trump administration has sought to determine whether consolidation in the beef industry is contributing to soaring prices for consumers and squeezing ranchers and cattle producers.
In November 2025, President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate the nation’s largest meatpacking companies for “collusion, price fixing, and price manipulation.”
The DOJ’s investigation initially focused on the four largest beef processors: Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. The Justice Department said the companies, dubbed the “Big Four,” control roughly 85% of the U.S. beef processing market.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a May press conference that the DOJ has since reviewed more than 3 million documents and interviewed industry participants as part of the investigation.
“Multiple plant closures across the country, the current market structure, and high concentration in the industry indicate anticompetitive activity,” Blanche said at a news conference.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Sarrine has also warned that concentration in the meatpacking industry could harm consumers and small businesses while creating vulnerabilities throughout the beef supply chain.
“The victims of such anticompetitive coordination can include consumers to whom they sell their products, as well as small and independent businesses that provide necessary inputs — such as, in the cattle industry, ranchers and cattlemen,” Sarrine said in a June speech.
The DOJ’s scrutiny comes as consumers face historically high beef prices and a shrinking U.S. cattle herd.
Ground beef sold for an average of $6.89 per pound in July, up 10% from a year earlier and nearly $1 more per pound than in 2024.
Trump has sought to address the supply shortage by increasing beef imports. In August, he announced a deal to temporarily ease tariffs on imported beef, arguing that the move would help lower prices for American families while U.S. ranchers work to rebuild the domestic cattle herd.
Trump reaches deal to halt tariffs on beef for 90 days in bid to lower prices
“As everyone knows, under President [Joe] Biden, beef prices soared at their fastest rate and the American beef herd fell to its smallest size in modern history,” Trump wrote.
Under the agreement, the United States would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of beef products used for ground beef to enter the country without the applicable out-of-quota tariff for 90 days. Trump said importers had committed to selling the beef at 25% below current market prices.