The seven main livestock farms in Murcia, which represent 80% of the total livestock farmers in the Region, have joined the claim against the country's large dairy companies from whom they demand more than 3 million euros that they would have undercharged for the called milk cartel.
This was announced this Thursday by the BGI-LAW and Lidiare offices, which will be in charge of representing farmers against the abuse of large dairy companies that agreed on prices to pay farmers less money for each liter of milk they bought from them.
For Antonio Heredero, partner of BGI-LAW, the decision of the Murcian ranchers “is great news because, in competition law, many things are changing and more and more small ones are making the decision to stand up to the big ones.” corporations that hold near-monopoly positions.
For his part, José Javier Conesa, partner of Lidiare in Murcia, positively valued going hand in hand with a firm specialized in macro-claims when representing Murcian livestock farmers, “the experience accredited by BGI-LAW, together with the knowledge of the sector in Murcia, which has Lidiare, will be a good tandem to defend the interests against the large dairy companies.
375 million for the more than 900 affected ranchers
The BGI-LAW firm, specialized in macro-lawsuits against the abuse of large companies, claims from the companies involved in the so-called milk cartel more than 375 million euros for the more than 900 farmers who have trusted them to make the claim. .
In total, the 900 farmers who have joined the lawsuit against the milk cartel have a total of around 72,000 cows throughout Spain, mainly in Galicia, Castilla y León, the province of Cáceres and Murcia.
The demand is made for a total of more than 12 billion liters of milk, for which 10% of the total sales price is claimed, since, it is estimated, that this was the amount affected by the reduction in the agreed price. irregularly by the companies involved in the milk cartel.
They could recover up to 600,000 euros
According to data from both firms, a livestock farm with about 100 cows could recover around 315,000 euros, if they had been selling the milk to one of the companies involved in the cartel and during the 10 years that the cartel lasted. fraud.
But, in addition, according to the lawyers, to that amount we would have to add the legal interest to be computed from each supply, so, taking into account that the cartel began to operate in the year 2000, we could be talking about accumulated interest of around of 80%, which could almost double the compensation, depending on the specific case. This means that, in some cases, farmers could recover up to 600,000 euros, a non-negligible amount.
For Antonio Heredero, partner of BGI-LAW, “the cartel has had a clear negative effect on the prices paid for milk” and would be behind the disappearance of a good number of farms. “You just have to remember that the number of ranchers in Spain today is around 13,000, when 5 years ago it was around 17,000, which represents a drop of more than 20% in a short period of time,” he points out.
According to approximate estimates, subject to the analysis of the specific case for each producer, specialist lawyers quantify the negative effect at 3 euro cents for each liter of milk sold to one of the companies that were part of the cartel.
The importance of having a good expert
According to the experience of both firms, the most important thing to achieve a positive ruling is to have a good expert analysis. According to Heredero, “experience has taught us the importance of having a good expert to be able to obtain a realistic assessment from the judge, for this reason, we always work with the best companies and the most specialized in those issues that we defend.” “The expert opinion is decisive in a claim for damages,” highlights the lawyer, who warns that, “in many cases, the problems in the sentence are not that it is negative, but that the amount is not adequate.”
It is also important to unite as many ranchers as possible to have greater strength as a collective. In this sense, BGI-LAW already represents more than 900 ranchers, which “represents an important force”, as the firms highlight, from where they encourage the largest number of ranchers possible to sue to obtain fair compensation. “It is time to sue, livestock farmers have always complained about prices and now they have the opportunity to settle scores and demonstrate that they cannot play with the future of a sector as important as livestock farming.”
#main #livestock #farms #Murcia #claim #million #euros #milk #cartel #truth
