280,000 eggs to be delivered to NYC food banks in new settlement holding egg producers overcharged
Over 280,000 eggs will be delivered to food banks across New York City after a multistate investigation found a trio of egg producers across the country illegally coordinated to influence and fix egg prices for years, overcharging customers.
The investigation, led by the federal Department of Justice and supported by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 16 other states, resulted in a settlement where major egg producers Cal-Maine, Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch have agreed to deliver 53 million eggs to food banks throughout the country, including nearly 5 million eggs to New York and 280,000 across the city, James said Monday.
“It is unacceptable that New Yorkers paid higher prices for eggs because these companies were working together behind the scenes to raise prices,” James said. “My office has zero tolerance for big corporations breaking the law to boost their profits at the expense of working families. We are delivering free eggs to those in need across the state because no New Yorker should get ripped off at the grocery store.”
While it may seem a bit strange for a settlement to include massive quantities of eggs, the attorney general’s office said it’s becoming an increasingly common way to settle cases: It’s hard to distribute money back to shoppers who may have bought overcharged eggs, so it’s seen as better and more efficient to distribute product directly to people most in need who would have been most impacted by price increases.
In New York, the eggs will be distributed through Feeding New York, the statewide network overseeing New York’s food banks. The truckload of 280,000 eggs to Brooklyn’s City Harvest was the first of the deliveries, which will continue across the state through mid-October.
City Harvest said it was grateful for the eggs.
“We are so grateful to receive this delivery of eggs, which are among the most requested items by our food pantry partners and the New Yorkers we serve,” said CEO of City Harvest Jilly Stephens. “This delivery will help more than 20,000 New Yorkers in need put food on the table at a time when nearly 50% of working-aged households in New York City are struggling to make ends meet.”
In addition to the egg deliveries, the companies will pay $3.3 million to the government and be required to adopt new practices and compliance measures to prevent future illegal coordination under a separate settlement with the DOJ and the coalition of states.
The investigation found that the egg producers secretly communicated with each other to coordinate their bidding activities and influence the daily egg price quotes published by Urner Barry, a benchmark pricing service widely used in egg supply contracts, since at least 2022.
“The companies submitted bids at higher prices, which led to Urner Barry increasing its price quotes,” James’ office said. “By manipulating the Urner Barry benchmark, the companies artificially inflated the price of eggs paid by retailers and consumers across the nation.”
The settlement was widely applauded by city officials, including the Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan borough presidents, Public Advocate Jummane Williams, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who emphasized that price-gouging wasn’t to be tolerated in the city.
“Here in New York, we send price gougers scrambling — especially when they try to cheat the hard-working food banks and pantries that feed millions of families daily,” Mamdani said. “Thanks to Attorney General James’ ‘crack’ down on egg price-gouging, fewer New Yorkers will go hungry, our food pantries can continue their essential work, and greed has once again been shown the door in our city.”
