The Trump administration is taking aim at “Big Egg,” alleging that some of the nation’s largest egg producers illegally conspired to drive up consumer prices.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division on Tuesday alongside attorneys general from 17 states, names Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman’s Egg Ranch, and Versova Holdings and affiliated companies. Prosecutors allege the companies conspired for years to manipulate industry price benchmarks that influence wholesale egg prices nationwide.
According to the complaint, executives from the companies coordinated bidding strategies through text messages, emails, and phone calls to influence price reporting by market publisher Urner Barry, whose benchmark prices are widely used throughout the grocery and restaurant industries.
In one October 2023 text message cited in the complaint, a Cal-Maine executive allegedly told Hickman’s CEO, “We are bidding up. Let’s hold it today.” After the companies submitted coordinated bids, Urner Barry kept its egg price quotation unchanged, prompting the Cal-Maine executive to text, “No change,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint also alleged Hickman’s CEO urged competitors to submit additional bids to influence the benchmark. In one December 2023 email, the executive wrote, “Please consider posting strong bids, early and often,” adding that market reporters would be more likely to raise benchmark prices after observing higher bids from multiple companies.
The Justice Department further alleged the companies executed private egg trades at artificially high prices specifically to provide market reporters with transactions supporting higher benchmark prices. In one August 2023 text exchange, a Cal-Maine executive allegedly told a Versova executive that an Urner Barry reporter “needs premium trades to hang her hat on” before negotiating purchases above prevailing market prices.
Federal prosecutors said the alleged coordination caused benchmark egg prices to rise to record levels before falling sharply after the companies learned in March 2025 that the Justice Department had opened an investigation and ordered them to preserve documents.
The price of eggs spiked in late 2024 into early 2025, driven largely by H5N1 bird flu, which decimated the poultry industry, according to a USDA report.
“Retail egg prices increased 32.2 percent in 2022, 1.4 percent in 2023, 8.5 percent in 2024, and 21.9 percent in 2025,” the report said. “There were fewer new detections of HPAI during the first quarter of calendar year 2026 than there were during the first quarter of calendar year 2025.”
Alongside the lawsuit, the Justice Department filed proposed settlements that, if approved by a federal court, would prohibit the companies from communicating with competitors about bidding strategies, prices, supply-and-demand information shared with benchmark publications, or transactions intended to influence market price reports.
The agreements would also require the companies to implement antitrust compliance programs, appoint compliance officers, monitor industry meetings, and report potential violations.
“No product more quintessentially represents affordability than the price Americans pay for eggs,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. “These actions prove this Department’s continued commitment to protecting competition and providing real relief for everyday Americans’ pocketbooks.”
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“The Antitrust Division is steadfast in our work to protect our nation’s citizens from illegal conduct that makes daily life less affordable,” added Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Sarrine of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “We are proud that these settlements will keep egg prices competitive and keep money in the hands of consumers across the country.”
Cal-Maine Foods is the nation’s largest producer and marketer of eggs. The lawsuit seeks court orders barring the alleged conduct and enforcing the proposed settlements. The companies will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations in court.