A bipartisan coalition of state prosecutors and the Justice Department announced a settlement with major egg producers Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman’s to resolve allegations that the trio illegally conspired to raise egg prices nationwide.
Settlement Details
As a result of the settlement, the major egg producers agreed to refrain from illegally conspiring to raise egg prices, will pay $3.3 million to involved states, and will donate over 53 million eggs to food banks in states that joined the coalition.
The California Department of Justice shared that of that 53 million egg donation required under the settlement, 8.9 million eggs will go directly to food banks in California over the next months and years.
According to the California Association of Food Banks, more than one in five Californians are currently facing food insecurity – an estimated 8.8 million people – including over a quarter of all households with children.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa Western Division, listed attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin and alleged that the conspiracy to inflate prices by the three major egg producers violated Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.
