Major Egg Producers Settle Price-Fixing Allegations With $3.3 Million Deal and 53 Million Eggs

A Hidden Hand Behind the High Egg Prices

When Americans were paying over six dollars for a dozen eggs, most assumed bird flu was entirely to blame. The truth, federal prosecutors now allege, was more complicated — and more deliberate. The Justice Department and a multistate coalition alleged that Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman's Egg Ranch "secretly communicated" from approximately June 2022 to March 2025 to influence the daily egg price quotes published by Urner Barry, which has an egg-pricing benchmark "widely used in egg supply contracts." In plain terms, the companies are accused of gaming the very system that sets prices for billions of eggs sold to grocery stores and restaurants across the country.

According to the complaint, the defendants conspired to inflate Urner Barry's price quotations by agreeing to submit a large number of bids, cause multiple defendants to bid in order to signal to Urner Barry that a diverse set of market participants needed to buy eggs, submit bids in the hours leading up to the publication of Urner Barry's price quotations, submit bids that were unlikely to lead to executed trades, and execute trades at premium prices. According to the government, the influx of high, fake bids tricked reporters at Urner Barry into recording a bogus spike in demand, thereby publishing higher daily prices.

The Settlement — and What It Actually Means

The Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general reached a $3.3 million settlement with the three egg producers for alleged price manipulation that "artificially increased" egg prices. The egg producers also agreed to donate about 53 million eggs combined to food banks or related nonprofits as part of the settlement. Cal-Maine agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the coalition's civil claims, Hickman's agreed to pay $1 million, and Versova $800,000.

The proposed settlements, which must still be approved by a federal judge, would prevent Cal-Maine, Versova, and Hickman's from engaging in "coordinated" egg price manipulation in the future via measures such as the adoption of antitrust compliance programs and the appointment of antitrust compliance officers. Critics may note that $3.3 million is a modest sum compared to the scale of profits generated during the price surge. Cal-Maine alone reported $1.2 billion in earnings during the price spike, according to Farm Action.

Bird Flu Was Real — But Was It the Whole Story?

In February 2023, average retail prices for a dozen large Grade A eggs had spiked 150% from a year earlier — the largest annual change on record, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At the time, economists had pointed largely to a historic and deadly outbreak of bird flu, which killed millions of egg-laying chickens and crimped egg supply. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the average retail price of a dozen Grade A large eggs peaked at $6.23 in March 2025, an all-time high.

In separate company statements, Cal-Maine and Versova denied wrongdoing and pointed to bird flu as the primary driver of higher egg prices, rather than their alleged collusion. But one detail in the complaint is hard to ignore: egg price quotations dropped significantly from their peak after the defendants learned of the Department's investigation and were instructed to preserve documents in March 2025. U.S. Department of Agriculture data on New York's daily egg market showed the average wholesale price for a dozen large white eggs peaking at $8.53 in late February 2025. But once companies got word of a federal probe and were told to preserve their documents, average prices fell to $3.86 per dozen in New York by April 2025.

Where Things Stand Now

Prices have since fallen sharply, dropping to $2.19 per dozen in May 2026. The latest USDA figures for June 2026 have the average wholesale price for large white eggs in New York at $0.65 per dozen. That's a dramatic reversal from the crisis highs that reshaped shopping habits and restaurant menus across the country.

The settlements still require federal court approval, and none of the companies admitted wrongdoing. Under the Tunney Act, the proposed settlements and competitive impact statements will be published in the Federal Register, and the public has 60 days following that publication to submit written comments to the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. Whether or not a judge signs off on these terms, the case has already exposed a little-known vulnerability: a single private pricing index, largely invisible to consumers, has enormous power over what Americans pay for one of the most basic foods in their kitchens. That's a lesson regulators — and shoppers — are unlikely to forget.