Under the terms of the agreement, none of the companies involved in the lawsuit will admit liability or wrongdoing, but they will be asked to provide $3.3 million in compensation and about 53 million eggs, which are to be donated to food banks and other non-profits. The money will be distributed among the states that participated in proceedings.
The U.S. Department of Justice and 17 states have negotiated a settlement with egg producers accused of conspiring to inflate prices.
According to The Associated Press, the government filed its initial claim against Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch. All three defendants were accused of colluding to “artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs” between June 2022 and March 2025.
“No product more quintessentially represents affordability than the price Americans pay for eggs,” Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a press release. “These actions prove this Department’s continued commitment to protecting competition and providing real relief for everyday Americans’ pocketbooks.”
More specifically, investigators found that the three defendant companies coordinated price-quotation bids, which were then submitted to Urner Barry Publications, a company that runs an index used to determine how much grocery stores, restaurants, and other retailers pay for eggs and other produce. These inflated bids translated directly to “higher prices for eggs sold to consumers.”
“Defendants conspired to inflate Urner Barry’s price quotations by agreeing to: (1) submit a large number of bids; (2) cause multiple Defendants to bid in order to signal to Urner Barry that a diverse set of market participants needed to buy eggs; (3) submit a large number of bids in the hours leading up to the publication of Urner Barry’s price quotations; (4) submit bids that were unlikely to lead to executed trades; and (5) execute trades at premium prices,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
“When powerful companies collude behind the scenes to raise prices, working families suffer the costs,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office helped lead the investigation. “These egg producers manipulated the market to squeeze even more profit out of consumers and businesses.”
The settlement was announced on Monday, shortly after the lawsuit was formally submitted to an Iowa-based district court. Under the terms of the agreement, none of the companies involved in the lawsuit will admit liability or wrongdoing, but they will be asked to provide $3.3 million in compensation and about 53 million eggs, which are to be donated to food banks and other non-profits. The money will be distributed among the states that participated in proceedings.
The agreement also stipulates that the defendants take certain actions, including adopting antitrust compliance programs and placing a blanket-ban on certain communications with director competitors. This ban would cover most correspondence on pricing and bidding strategies.
Sources
Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53 million eggs to settle price fixing claims
DOJ reaches settlement with major egg producers over alleged price manipulation
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