Remember the post-COVID spike in egg prices? It turns out, according to government allegations, to be partially the result of a conspiracy to fix prices.
Why it matters: The surge in egg prices was a key inflation talking point in the 2024 election season.
The latest: The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement last week against some of the country's largest egg producers, after filing a lawsuit that accused Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman's Egg Ranch and Versova of unlawfully coordinating and manipulating egg prices between June 2022 and March 2025.
• The deal requires the companies to pay $3.3 million and donate 53 million eggs to food banks and nonprofits.
• The egg producers settled without making any admissions related to the allegations.
The intrigue: The suit alleged that the companies worked together to push up the value of an important index of daily egg prices published by Urner Barry Publications.
• That index served as the foundation for the prices that grocery stores, restaurants — and ultimately consumers — paid for eggs across the country.
• "Price quotations dropped significantly from their February 2025 peak after Defendants learned of the Department of Justice investigation and were instructed to preserve documents on March 5, 2025," the Justice Department said.
The other side: In a statement, Cal-Maine said it "denies all wrongdoing and violations of law and continues to believe that such claims are baseless."
• A representative of the current parent of Hickman's Egg Ranch, Mantiqueira USA, wrote that "the matters addressed relate to a period before Hickman's became part of our company. This settlement fully resolves the allegations against Hickman's Egg Ranch related to that period. We are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations and to conducting business with the highest standards of integrity."
• Versova did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
What they're saying: "There's a big market (egg producers selling eggs to supermarkets etc.), and there's a small market (egg producers selling extra eggs to each other on an electronic exchange)," wrote Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine. "The price in the small market determines the price in the big market."
• "Participants in the small market are also participants in the big market. You can spend a little money in the small market to move the price, which can make you a lot of money in the big market."
The bottom line: Your own humble Matt would merely like to suggest that it's remarkable that in such a complex economy as that of the United States, the market for such a basic product, the egg, can apparently be gamed this way.
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