The U.S. Justice Department and 17 states have settled with three major egg producers—Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman's Egg Ranch—resolving claims of illegal collusion to artificially inflate egg prices. The complaint, filed in Iowa, accused the companies of orchestrating a scheme between June 2022 and March 2025. This involved coordinating bids submitted to Urner Barry Publications, a company that provides a crucial index influencing prices for billions of eggs sold to grocery stores and restaurants annually. New York Attorney General Letitia James described this as manipulating the market to extract more profit from consumers, resulting in higher prices. The states involved in the settlement include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
The settlement, which still requires court approval, mandates that the companies collectively pay $3.3 million and donate 53 million eggs to food banks and nonprofits. Specifically, Cal-Maine will contribute $1.5 million and 30 million eggs; Versova will provide $800,000 and 20 million eggs; and Hickman's will pay $1 million and donate 3.25 million eggs. None of the companies admitted wrongdoing. Cal-Maine, the only publicly traded company among the three, reported a profit of $1.22 billion for its 2025 fiscal year.
The complaint noted that daily egg price quotations dropped significantly after the companies became aware of the Justice Department's investigation and were instructed to preserve documents in March 2025. Consumer egg prices also later tumbled to under $2.20 per dozen by May 2026. Prior to this, average U.S. egg prices reached a record high of approximately $6.23 per dozen in March 2025, with producers attributing this to a bird flu epidemic. However, critics argued that major companies exploited their market dominance during the outbreak.
Under the proposed settlements, the companies are prohibited from communicating with competitors about pricing and bidding strategies, and must implement antitrust compliance programs. The Department of Justice's Omeed A. Assefi stated that these settlements aim to address years of conduct that negatively impacted Americans' finances. Farm Action President Angela Huffman criticized the outcome as another settlement that allows powerful corporations to continue squeezing profit from consumers.
Beyond payment and donations, the companies are barred from discussing bids or transactions not tied to legitimate business needs or those intended to influence benchmark publications. They must also appoint compliance officers and monitor cooperative and joint venture meetings. The proposed settlements, along with competitive impact statements, will be published in the Federal Register for a 60-day public comment period under the Tunney Act before the Iowa federal court makes a final decision.
