The U.S. Justice Department and 17 states reached settlement agreements with three major egg producers this week to resolve allegations that the companies illegally colluded for years to raise prices, including when the cost soared to record highs last year.

The states and federal government accused Cal-Maine Foods, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch of a behind-the-scenes arrangement to “artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs” between June 2022 and March 2025. In particular, their investigation found that the companies coordinated on what bids they would submit to Urner Barry Publications, a company that runs an index key to determining how much grocery stores, restaurants and others pay for billions of eggs each year.

In turn, that meant “higher prices for eggs sold to consumers,” alleged the complaint, which was filed in Iowa on Monday, the day the settlement terms were announced.

  • FrankFrankson@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    94
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    Cool it’s so nice that they get to keep all the profits they stole from us while paying only a portion of those profits as a fine. Justice has been served!

    Fun unrelated side note: if you add stryofoam to molotov cocktails it turns them into napalm cocktails!

  • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    56
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    $3.3 million is nothing compared to the profits they reaped by running the scam. This was a gift by the Trump administration.

  • BillyClark@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    4 days ago

    If the fine isn’t greater than the cost to consumers (which in this case is far, far more than their profits from the fraud), then this is essentially the government endorsing this behavior.

  • tumbleweed05@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    i never understood why when the people at these companies that commit crimes never see an hour inside a prison? wage theft is the same story. these are crimes. they need to be brought before a court and judge to determine consequences. paying some fine isn’t an appropriate consequence for the damage they’ve done with this one action.

    • 𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      Prison is only for the poors. If you have enough money, Capitalism lets you do anything. Just look at how much praise and money Musk has received from the US government for making a child porn generator.

    • kinkles@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      4 days ago

      i’m genuinely confused how you thought chickens worked before if not a violent explosion of eggs, millions at a time. Did you think it was like a hundred or something?

  • CandyPants@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    4 days ago

    Make them pay back every penny that they gained by illegally colluding to raise prices.

    This is simple, and thats how you know the clowns at the justice department aren’t serious. You’re giving them alight warning to NOT GET CAUGHT again.

    I don’t give two shits if they go out of business. Capitalism can only work if the markers are free and you can’t point to a single free market these days. Three companies own every industry and fix prices. When thats done with illegal drugs, they’re called Cartels.

  • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    Every American gets 0.152 eggs! Woooooooooooo! Fuck yeah! You can make 5% of a celebration cake with that! 🎉