Get the Shell Outta Here!
We’re coming up on Christmas, my favorite time of year. Every year I get so excited to watch the greatest Christmas movie of all time – Die Hard.
The movie came out in 1988. Early on in the film, John McClane calls the police to warn them of the terrorists. The LAPD dispatcher notifies Sgt. Al Powell, who pays for his Twinkies at the gas station before going to investigate. As he gets into his car, he glances at Nakatomi Tower off in the distance. In the scene, a sign advertising gas at under 75¢ a gallon is visible.
In 1988, egg prices were about the same, averaging 79¢ a dozen. Surprisingly, at Christmastime in 2021, egg prices only rose by a dollar in over 30 years, averaging $1.78 a dozen. In 2022, however, egg prices started rising faster than Hans Gruber plummeted from the top of Nakatomi Tower.
Egg producers claimed that the avian flu outbreak in late 2021 decimated the chicken population, resulting in significantly fewer eggs being produced. With a decreased supply but consistent demand, egg prices soared.
Consumers, however, put a crack in that theory. This fall, major U.S. egg producers began scrambling after several class action lawsuits were filed against them, accusing them of fixing prices. The first was filed on November 6 in federal court in Indiana, alleging major producers violated U.S. antitrust law and caused grocers and other buyers to pay artificially higher prices. Similar cases were filed shortly after in federal courts here in Wisconsin and in Illinois.
Egg producers Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms, Versova Holdings, Daybreak Foods and multiple Hillandale Farms companies were named as defendants in the lawsuit. Price reporting agencies Urner Barry Publications, Egg Clearinghouse and United Egg Producers were also named.
According to the plaintiffs, the companies set prices through Urner Barry’s pricing benchmarks and a private trading platform. The suit alleges that egg producers supplied selective or misleading pricing information to these agencies, enabling them to coordinate elevated price benchmarks. The plaintiffs contend that the egg industry is “structurally susceptible to collusion.”
The complaint asserts that the egg producers publicly attributed the price hikes to the bird flu. The plaintiffs claim, though, that flock reductions were modest as a result of the outbreak and that feed and fuel costs actually declined during that time. The suit also points out that Europe, which saw an even larger bird flu–related supply loss, endured only modest price increases.
The plaintiffs argue that the flu alone does not explain the dramatic spike of U.S. prices. “Defendants’ manipulation of the Urner Barry benchmark allowed them to sustain ever-increasing price hikes on their customers,” the egg price-fixing class action lawsuit says.
King Kullen Grocery, a chain of supermarkets headquartered in New York state, claims the price-fixing of conventional, or non-free-range eggs took place between January of 2022, and March of 2025. In March, egg prices hit an all-time high of $6.23 per dozen, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In April, however, after the U.S. Justice Department announced it was investigating the issue, wholesale egg prices dropped by more than 60%.
King Kullen demands a jury trial and requests declaratory and injunctive relief and an award of compensatory, treble and/or punitive damages for itself and all class members, which consists of millions of commercial buyers and consumers.
When I was a kid, young hoodlums used to throw eggs and toilet paper at houses. In the aftermath of COVID, apparently only rich hoodlums could afford to do so.
Reg P. Wydeven
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