Retailer Bass Pro, Cabela's hit with price-fixing class action

Reuters

02-06-2025

June 2 (Reuters) - Retailer Bass Pro Shops and its affiliate Cabela's have been accused in a new lawsuit of scheming with manufacturers, distributors and a trade group to charge consumers artificially higher prices in the billion-dollar archery and bowhunting industry.
The proposed class action, opens new tab, filed on Friday in the federal district court in Utah, also named Dick's Sporting Goods, the Archery Trade Association and several manufacturers and distributors as participants in the alleged price-fixing scheme.
The Pennsylvania resident who filed the lawsuit alleged the trade association drove an industry-wide campaign to establish and enforce minimum advertised pricing policies. Those policies violated U.S. antitrust law by preventing price competition among retailers, the complaint alleged.
The lawsuit estimated there are hundreds of thousands of potential class members who have purchased relevant archery products since 2014.
'The alleged cartel in this case has illegally raised the prices paid by American bowhunters and archers for a decade,' said a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Gary Smith Jr, of law firm Hausfeld. 'This lawsuit aims to recover those overcharges for the benefit of the alleged cartel's victims.'
Bass Pro Shops, Dick's Sporting Goods and the Archery Trade Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bass Pro Shops acquired Cabela's in 2017.
Archery products distributor Lancaster Archery Supply, another defendant, did not immediately respond to a similar request.
The lawsuit said the Minnesota-based Archery Trade Association played a central role in the alleged price-fixing conspiracy. The group's membership, now at more than 2,500 organizations, includes manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
Price competition among retailers was seen as an 'existential threat' to the industry, according to the lawsuit, so the trade group and retailers allegedly agreed to implement minimum advertised pricing as a measure to keep a level playing field.
Some bows can cost hundreds of dollars, and arrows run more than $100, according to the lawsuit. The products at issue also include arrowheads and targets.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order prohibiting the alleged price-fixing conspiracy from continuing.
The case is Joseph Santarlas v. Bowtech et al, U.S. District Court, District of Utah, No. 2:25-cv-00436-DAK.
For plaintiff: Gary Smith Jr of Hausfeld; Jason Lichtman of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; David Kesselman of Kesselman, Brantly, Stockinger; and Joshua Grabar of Graber Law Office
For defendants: No appearances yet