Egg Producers Ordered to Pay in Price-Fixing Settlement

The U.S. Justice Department and 17 states have reached a settlement to resolve price-fixing allegations within the egg industry. Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch were accused of raising prices for consumers between June 2022 and March 2025 during a nationwide outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Under the settlement, the companies will be responsible for donating more than $3.3 million and 53 million eggs to food banks and several non-profits across the country. The companies will also have to adopt antitrust compliance programs and ban all communications between competitors to determine pricing.

The money will be split evenly between Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

Taking advantage of consumers when the industry is under stress is never a good idea. In this instance, the perpetrators were caught and punished. This is the type of behavior that gives a company and even an industry a bad reputation. They took advantage of the situation and are now on the hook to pay the price.

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