Major Egg Producers Settle Allegations of Illegally Conspiring to Raise Egg Prices Nationwide
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KEYT) – A bipartisan coalition of state prosecutors and the Justice Department announced a settlement with major egg producers Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman's to resolve allegations that the trio illegally conspired to raise egg prices nationwide.
As a result of the settlement, the major egg producers agreed to refrain from illegally conspiring to raise egg prices, will pay $3.3 million to involved states, and will donate over 53 million eggs to food banks in states that joined the coalition.
The California Department of Justice shared that of that 53 million egg donation required under the settlement, 8.9 million eggs will go directly to food banks in California over the next months and years.
According to the California Association of Food Banks, more than one in five Californians are currently facing food insecurity -an estimated 8.8 million people- including over a quarter of all households with children.
"The California Association of Food Banks appreciates being given the responsibility to distribute this egg donation to California's network of food banks through our Farm to Family program, as the need for food continues with food banks serving approximately 6 million people per month across the state," explained Stacia Hill Levenfeld, CEO of the California Association of Food Banks. "Protein-rich foods are among the most requested items at food banks, and eggs provide a versatile, nutritious option for families."
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa Western Division, listed attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin and alleged that the conspiracy to inflate prices by the three major egg producers violated Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
An additional unnamed defendant, referred to in court documents as "Co-Conspirator Cooperative A" and lists its principal place of business as Aurora, Colorado, was also included in the allegations.
Between June 2022 and March 2025, defendants Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.; Centrum Valley Holdings, LLC, Versova Holdings, LLC; Versova Management Cooperative; and Hickman's Egg Ranch, Inc. agreed to submit fake bids to artificially raise the daily price quotations for eggs published by Urner Barry Publications, Inc., a firm that reports market price information about the egg market and is used by retailers and producers, including some of the defendants named in the complaint, to establish the price of eggs nationwide detailed the complaint.
Eggs are produced by egg producing companies who then sell their eggs to retailers such as grocery stores and restaurants.
Defendants, which include some of the largest egg producers in the nation, were operating their businesses at a net short business model noted the complaint.
That means they were intentionally not producing enough eggs to meet their existing customer demands and instead were filling the gap by getting eggs from other egg producers on electronic exchanges or from direct purchases.
Urner Barry, a price reporting agency that uses market information to publish daily prices on eggs on a regional basis, is commonly used in contracts to set the price of eggs purchased by retailers and therefore its market analysis plays an outsized impact on the price you pay for eggs nationwide.
According to the complaint, the defendants conspired to artificially inflate the price of eggs set by Urner Barry in the following ways:
- Agreeing to submit a large number of bids for eggs on the electronic exchange to influence the prices determined by Urner Barry
- Agreeing that each defendants would submit large numbers of bids on the egg exchange to a diverse set of market participants
- Agreeing to submit a large number of bids in the hours just before Urner Barry set daily price quotations
- Agreeing to submit bids that were never intentioned to be accepted and still raised egg prices
- Agreeing to execute trades off the formal egg exchange, but still baked into Urner Barry's price system, at premium prices to inflate the price of eggs
The defendants also lobbied Urner Barry directly to increase egg prices by citing their increased number of bids at premium prices explained the complaint.
The complaint then lists multiple interactions amongst the defendants directly coordinating their price fixing scheme to increase the price of eggs nationally including deleting bids that would have decreased prices, spreading bids at each national region, undermining non-defendant egg businesses from lowering egg prices, and even celebrating the impact of their efforts.
When defendants learned that the Department of Justice was investigating their scheme in March of 2025, price quotations dropped significantly from their peak earlier the same year noted the complaint.
"As Californians scrambled to feed their families, three egg producers conspired to act illegally and hatched a plan to raise the cost of eggs nationwide," California Attorney General Bonta shared. "My office is committed to cracking down on companies that run afoul of the law and unlawfully conspire to raise prices for Californians who are already struggling with a crisis of affordability. Let me be clear: In California we have zero tolerance for bad eggs."
