RIDGELAND — Cal-Maine Foods Inc., the Ridgeland-based company that is the nation’s largest egg producer, has agreed to pay $1.5 million and donate 30 million eggs to resolve antitrust claims that it helped manipulate a benchmark index used to set egg prices nationwide, according to a settlement announced by the U.S. Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general.
The U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, joined by attorneys general from 17 states, filed a civil lawsuit June 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa against Cal-Maine, along with Hickman’s Egg Ranch Inc. of Buckeye, Arizona, and Versova, based in Sioux Center, Iowa. The complaint alleges the three companies coordinated bids submitted to Urner Barry, a market reporting service whose price quotations influence what grocery stores, restaurants and other buyers pay for eggs nationwide, between June 2022 and March 2025.
Combined, the three producers will pay $3.3 million to the participating states and donate more than 53 million non-expired, non-spoiled Grade A eggs to food banks and nonprofits…