Top Egg Producers Are Fixing Prices According To Class Action Lawsuit

Case Overview: The lawsuit accuses major egg producers of using a shared benchmark system to fix prices and eliminate competition.

Consumers Affected: Shoppers who purchased eggs or egg-based products since February 2022.

Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Some of the country’s biggest egg producers secretly coordinated to keep prices high using a shared industry benchmark system to move in lockstep instead of competing, a new lawsuit alleges. 

Cal-Maine Foods, Daybreak Foods, Hillandale Farms, Opal Foods, Rose Acre Farms, and their trade association, Egg Farmers of America are all accused of violating antitrust laws by collectively controlling more than 90 percent of the market and using that dominance to inflate egg prices far above competitive levels.

According to the complaint, egg prices soared from under $2 to more than $6 per dozen between 2022 and 2025, even though overall egg supply remained relatively steady. A group of consumers argue that producers used avian flu as a convenient cover story while delegating pricing decisions to Urner Barry, now known as Expana, a data platform they say acted as a common decision-maker for the industry. 

By feeding confidential supply, pricing, and forecast information into the system, the producers allegedly monitored one another and coordinated their prices without fear of being undercut.

Consumers Say Egg Prices Jumped While Supply Stayed Steady

Tariq Habash of Washington, D.C., Delia Govea of Los Angeles, Andrew Phillips of Long Island, and Catalina Torres of Orlando brought the proposed class action lawsuit, with each saying they bought eggs made by one or more of the defendants at retail stores throughout the class period beginning in February 2022.

All four describe the same pattern: purchasing eggs at everyday retailers, unknowingly paying supracompetitive prices, and having no way to avoid those costs because the alleged scheme spanned nearly the entire national market. They allege that without the described coordination between the major players, they would have paid significantly less for the everyday grocery item.

Producers Allegedly Relied on Shared Pricing Data to Coordinate Costs

The lawsuit alleges that Cal-Maine and other producers publicly attributed rising prices to avian flu, even in years when they had no outbreaks and, in Cal-Maine’s case, posted record profits. Producers allegedly relied on Urner Barry’s benchmark pricing system for both daily prices and market forecasts, using it as a tool to align prices across companies.

Because the egg market is highly concentrated and eggs are largely interchangeable, the lawsuit argues it was extremely vulnerable to coordination. Nearly all major producers report nonpublic data to the same pricing platform, belong to the same trade association, and attend the same industry conferences, giving them a number of opportunities to keep prices in sync. 

The result, according to the lawsuit, was a market in which competition was effectively replaced with algorithmic coordination and shared strategy -- all to the detriment of consumers.

The lawsuit notes that egg prices rose well beyond what supply disruptions or disease outbreaks would justify, and alleges the companies’ conduct deprived consumers nationwide of fair, competitive pricing.

Food Industry Faces Broader Price-Fixing Scrutiny

Egg prices aren’t the only food prices consumers are targeting in legal action, claiming producers in other food stuffs are also colluding. Major potato processors have been accused in federal court of conspiring to inflate prices for fries, hash browns, and other frozen potato products. 

Pilgrim’s Pride previously paid a nine-figure criminal fine for its role in a chicken price-fixing scheme, and sugar manufacturers are battling claims that they coordinated to drive up the cost of household sugar.

In their lawsuit, the group of consumers wants to represent anyone in the United States who purchased the defendant's eggs or egg-based products since February 2022. They are asking the court for damages and a declaration that the producers’ alleged coordination violated federal and state antitrust laws.

Case Details

• Lawsuit: Habash, et al. v. Urner Barry Publications, Inc., et al.
• Case Number: 1:25-cv-14112
• Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois 

Plaintiffs' Attorneys

• Blake Hunter Yagman (Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes LLP)

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