US egg producers face new wave of price-fixing lawsuits
By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Major U.S. egg producers are contending with a growing spate of class action lawsuits accusing them of fixing prices, as consumer frustration over the cost of eggs continues to simmer after years of inflation.
The first of the new wave of cases was filed on November 6 in federal court in Indiana, alleging major producers violated U.S. antitrust law and caused grocers and other buyers to pay artificially higher prices. G roups of consumers and restaurants filed the latest cases in Wisconsin and Illinois federal courts on Friday and Monday.
The lawsuits each target Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms and other producers. Data analytics and consulting firm Urner Barry is a defendant in some of the cases.
The plaintiffs claim the companies coordinated on prices through Urner Barry’s pricing benchmarks and a private trading platform. The lawsuits also allege that egg producers used the avian flu outbreak of late 2021 as a pretext for increases, even though flock reductions were modest and feed and fuel costs declined.
Cal-Maine and Urner Barry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Rose Acre declined to comment.
The alleged price-fixing scheme ran from 2022 until March 2025, when news that the U.S. Justice Department was probing the producers' conduct sent prices lower.
Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine, the largest U.S. egg producer, has said it is cooperating with the Justice Department investigation.
The new lawsuits seek class action status on behalf of millions of commercial buyers and consumers, among other buyers.
They follow earlier lawsuits against Cal-Maine and other companies that alleged a price-fixing conspiracy in the 2000s.
In a lawsuit related to those earlier cases, a jury in 2023 awarded food giants Kraft (KHC.O), General Mills (GIS.N), Kellogg (K.N) and Nestle (NESN.S) $17.7 million in damages for alleged overcharges during a four-year window in the mid-2000s.
Read more:
Largest US egg producer cooperating in Justice Department price probe
How bird flu has sent US eggs prices skyrocketing
US jury awards $17.7 mln to Kraft, other producers in egg price-fixing case
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