Egg producers settle DOJ price-fixing, donate 53M eggs

Three major U.S. egg producers have reached a settlement with the Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general to resolve allegations they conspired for years to artificially inflate the price of eggs nationwide. The agreement, announced on June 30, 2026, requires Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch to collectively donate 53 million eggs to food banks and pay $3.3 million to the states.

A civil antitrust lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa alleges the companies coordinated from approximately June 2022 to March 2025 to manipulate a key industry benchmark. Officials say the producers secretly communicated to influence daily price quotes published by Urner Barry, a market reporting service whose price index is widely used in wholesale egg supply contracts.

According to the complaint, executives urged each other to submit numerous high bids designed to move the published index upward, rather than to execute genuine trades. This alleged activity, which included bids placed just before daily quotes were finalized, artificially increased the wholesale price of eggs, a cost ultimately passed on to retailers and consumers.