Feds and 17 states settle egg-price probe
Egg producers stirred the market to squeeze out more profit, states charged.
The Justice Department and a coalition of 17 state attorneys general have reached a settlement with three of the country's largest egg producers, including Cal-Maine Foods, over allegations of price manipulation, according to the New York state attorney general's office.
“When powerful corporations collude behind the scenes to raise prices, working families suffer the costs,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a news release. “These egg producers manipulated the market to squeeze even more profit out of consumers and businesses.”
The probe had been telegraphed last week, when Bloomberg reported that "Cal-Maine Foods and other egg suppliers are close to resolving an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and a bipartisan group of states into alleged illegal price coordination."
The settlement closes a chapter of consumer outrage that ran for the better part of two years, when avian-flu-driven supply shortages were compounded — prosecutors alleged — by coordination among producers.
James R. Hood
Cal-Maine and its peers have already been on the losing end of related civil litigation. As Reuters' company page recapped, "Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg, and Nestle secured a $17.7 million damages verdict from a federal jury in Chicago after demonstrating that they were overcharged for egg products due to a price-fixing conspiracy involving major U.S. egg producers and industry associations."
What it means for shoppers: settlements typically include both monetary recovery and behavioral conditions — meaningful only if they meaningfully restrain producer behavior the next time avian flu, bird-flock culls or feed-cost spikes give the industry cover to raise prices in tandem.
The 17-state coalition gives the deal a broader enforcement footprint than a federal action alone.
