A class-action lawsuit filed in Missouri alleges that a “cartel” owns, controls or manages an unlawfully high portion of the state’s dispensary licenses and uses that market power to manipulate the market for its own benefit.

The lawsuit by licensed cannabis growers CPC of Missouri-Smithville, LLC and GF Saint Mary LLC alleges that Good Day Farm and a network of companies and investors conspired to invest in limited liability companies that then obtained additional cannabis industry licenses that are actually owned, managed or controlled by Good Day Farm.

Missouri there is a 10% licensing cap written into the adult-use cannabis law, but plaintiffs allege the so-called cartel operates under five different brand names and operates 61 dispensaries in total. The lawsuit alleges that Good Day Farms has 21 distribution licenses and is working with CODES, which operates 20 dispensaries; Greenlight, which operates 10 dispensaries; Fresh Karma, which operates six dispensaries; and 3Fifteen Primo, which operates four dispensaries.

The lawsuit alleges that the companies buy cannabis from unrelated firms at artificially low prices, but their stock from companies they are affiliated with and shut down independently manufactured products from their dispensaries unless the companies agree to their demands.

In a statement, Bob Hoffman, one of the lead lawyers for the lawsuit, said the companies’ actions are “suppressing competition in the wholesale cannabis market and enriching themselves with illegal profits through an unconstitutional and clandestine business conspiracy.”

“Missouri’s growers and producers have suffered under this scheme for too long – many of them know something is wrong, but don’t understand the extent of the Cartel’s market manipulation,” Hoffman said in a press release. “We filed this lawsuit to restore the fair and competitive marketplace that Missourians voted for when they legalized recreational cannabis in 2022.”

The lawsuit names 50 businesses and individuals as accomplices.