US egg producers face fresh class action lawsuits over price-fixing allegations
Several major egg producers are being sued for allegedly coordinating prices in violation of antitrust law.
USA – A wave of new lawsuits has been filed against leading US egg producers, accusing them of conspiring to manipulate prices amid persistent consumer frustration over rising costs.
The first of these cases was submitted in November in a federal court in Indiana, claiming that companies forced grocers and other buyers to pay inflated amounts through coordinated price strategies.
Additional lawsuits were lodged in Wisconsin and Illinois federal courts last Friday and Monday by groups representing consumers and restaurants seeking compensation for allegedly inflated egg prices.
The complaints target Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms, and other egg producers, with some filings also naming data analytics firm Urner Barry as a defendant.
Plaintiffs allege that the companies used Urner Barry’s price benchmarks and a private trading platform to coordinate increases, effectively manipulating the market.
The lawsuits further claim that producers leveraged the late 2021 avian flu outbreak to justify higher prices, even though flock reductions were limited and costs for feed and fuel had decreased.
Neither Cal-Maine nor Urner Barry responded immediately to requests for comment, while Rose Acre Farms declined to provide a statement.
According to the filings, the alleged price-fixing scheme ran from 2022 until March 2025, with prices declining only after news surfaced that the US Justice Department had launched an investigation.
Cal-Maine, headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and the largest egg producer in the country, confirmed that it is cooperating with the federal inquiry.
The lawsuits aim to gain class action status to represent millions of commercial buyers and individual consumers affected by the alleged pricing conduct.
This legal action follows previous cases involving Cal-Maine and other producers, which claimed similar antitrust violations in the 2000s.
In one such related case, a jury in 2023 awarded US$17.7 million in damages to companies including Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg, and Nestle for alleged overcharges spanning four years in the mid-2000s.
The latest suits mark an intensification of scrutiny on the egg industry, highlighting concerns over pricing practices and the role of market data platforms in facilitating alleged collusion.
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