COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has sued nine multi-state cannabis operators — including some with dispensaries in the Greater Cincinnati area — claiming they negotiated to prioritize each others' products on store shelves, while cutting out independent Ohio cultivators and processors.
The nine companies named in the lawsuit are:
- Ascend Wellness
- Ayr Wellness
- The Cannabist Company
- Cresco Labs
- Curaleaf
- Green Thumb Industries
- Jushi
- Trulieve
- Verano
Yost said his office received a tip in October 2024 from an Ohio cannabis industry employee alleging the companies had widespread "shelf-space allotments" for one another's products.
An investigation launched by Yost's office determined that the companies, which are not specifically Ohio-based, had entered into reciprocal purchasing agreements negotiated at the national level. The agreements meant these companies would prioritize one another's products in their Ohio dispensaries, while reducing or eliminating product purchases from independent Ohio cultivators and processors.
Yost said the tip specifically claimed senior representatives from the operators met in 2022 and "agreed to reduce purchases from independent businesses in order to preserve shelf space for one another during a period of increased supply and declining prices." Some of those companies, Yost claims, established explicit internal quotas on the shelf space allotments.
"Our investigation uncovered allegations of an industry-wide scheme designed to push small Ohio businesses out of the market," Yost said in a press release. "Ohio's antitrust laws protect competition and consumers, not backroom deals that rig the system for a select few."
The lawsuit filed by Yost is an antitrust one, alleging that the companies broke Ohio's antitrust laws by entering into reciprocal trade agreements with competitors, sharing competitively sensitive information and engaging in discriminatory distribution practices that disadvantaged independent Ohio cannabis operators.
