Dive Brief:

• An appeals court has reinstated a 2007 lawsuit that alleges Dean Foods, Dairy Farms of America and National Dairy Holdings conspired to divide markets and limit milk production in the Southeastern U.S.
• Grocery chain Food Lion and milk processor Fidel Breto filed a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to keep prices high following the merger of Dean and Suiza Foods. A lower court dismissed the case and ruled in 2010 that plaintiffs were unable to prove harm.
• The latest ruling—on the single issue of a claim of  a "conspiracy not to compete"—means the lawsuit can move forward in the lower court.

Dive Insight:

The milk merger, the subsequent creation of NDH (partly owned by DFA) and the resulting lawsuit left a "sour" taste across much of the dairy world. And when the lower court made a summary judgment in favor of Dean, it was predictable that an appeal would be filed. Less predictable, of course, is how that appeal would work out. Now the dairy industry will get a chance, after years of delay, to learn exactly what happened in the wake of the Dean-Suiza merger.