BALTIMORE — While egg prices have become more reasonable as of late, just over one year ago they reached record highs.
This prompted the U.S. Department of Justice and 17 States, including Maryland, to sue three of the country's top three egg producers and distributors — Cal-Maine, Hickman’s, and Versova — for alleged market manipulation.
"The coalition’s investigation found that from approximately June 2022 to March 2025, the egg producers secretly communicated with each other to coordinate their bidding activity and influence the daily egg price quotes published by Urner Barry, a benchmark pricing service widely used in egg supply contracts," the Maryland Attorney General's Office said in a press release.
On Tuesday the DOJ and States announced a proposed settlement with the companies.
If approved by a federal court, the companies would no longer be allowed to engage in activity that could trigger supply & demand issues or significant price hikes.
According to the Maryland Attorney General's Office, the companies would also pay $3.3 million and donate over 53 million eggs to area food banks or nonprofits across the country.
Of that, Maryland would receive about two million eggs and $120,000.
