NEW YORK — A proposed class-action lawsuit filed March 14 in Manhattan federal court by New York-based KPH Healthcare Services, Inc. accused several major US sugar producers and others of artificially inflating granulated sugar prices and seeks unspecified triple damages among other things and demands a jury trial.

Defendants named in the court filing include ASR Group International, Inc., American Sugar Refining, Inc., Domino Foods, Inc., United Sugar Producers & Refiners Cooperative F/K/A United Sugars Corp., Michigan Sugar Co., Commodity Information, Inc., and Richard Wisisten.

In a Reuters story, ASR Group said, “There is no basis for this case, and we intend to vigorously defend it.” There were no immediate comments from other defendants or from KPH.

The case appears to stem from the $315 million acquisition of Imperial Sugar Co. by US Sugar Corp. that the US Department of Justice unsuccessfully attempted to block with a federal lawsuit (decided in September 2022), in which the DOJ claimed the merger would further concentrate the US sugar industry and drive prices higher. The DOJ case also lost on appeal in July 2023.

“Beginning at least as early as Jan. 1, 2019, the exact date being unknown to plaintiff at this time, defendants and their co-conspirators conspired to artificially inflate the price of granulated sugar from the producing defendants, including food and beverage manufacturers, retailers, foodservice companies and distributors,” KPH said, among other accusations in the court filing.

The case is KPH Healthcare Services, Inc. v ASR Group International Inc. et al, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:24-cv-01941.

KPH is a national provider of pharmaceutical and health care services that controls Kinney Drug Stores in the Northeast.