Overview
- The Justice Department and attorneys general from 17 states filed a civil antitrust complaint on June 30 accusing Cal‑Maine Foods, Versova/Centrum and Hickman’s of coordinating bids from June 2022 through March 2025 to inflate daily egg price quotations.
- Under the proposed settlements the companies would provide 53 million eggs to food banks and pay a combined $3.3 million to the participating states, with specific donation and payment amounts laid out in court filings.
- Prosecutors cite texts, emails and trading patterns that they say show executives timed high bids, placed noncompetitive orders and executed premium off‑exchange trades to influence Urner Barry’s benchmark price reports used in contracts.
- The producers deny wrongdoing and say repeated avian influenza outbreaks and other supply shocks drove price volatility, and the complaint notes Urner Barry quotations fell sharply after the firms learned of the DOJ probe in March 2025.
- The agreements are proposed settlements filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa and must be approved by a judge; if approved they would impose antitrust compliance programs, monitoring and reporting requirements and allow further court oversight.