Michael Foods Will Pay $75M to Settle Egg Price-Fixing Class Action

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Plaintiffs in an egg price-fixing antitrust litigation have secured a multi-million dollar settlement against Michael Foods Inc.

Post Holdings Inc., the parent company of defendant Michael Foods, agreed to pay $75 million to partially resolve allegations that Michael Foods participated in a conspiracy to artificially inflate the price of shell eggs.

Post Holdings purchased Michael Foods in June 2014, several years into the current egg price-fixing litigation.

This settlement comes out of a large and ongoing antitrust litigation against several egg-producing defendants accused of collectively gaming the egg market by using an industry certification process to reduce supply.

Plaintiffs accused Michael Foods and other egg producers of engaging in anti-competitive behavior to reduce egg production as far back as 2000, aggravating egg prices that had already been increased by higher demand.

The settlement against Michael Foods more than doubles the amount of settlement funds secured to date in the course of this egg price fixing antitrust litigation, bringing the total to $135 million.

There’s still more litigation to come, however. The settlement, still subject to approval by the court, does not apply to claims against Michael Foods from indirect purchasers of eggs or to claims by direct purchasers that are currently on appeal.

Other defendants including Ohio Fresh Eggs LLC, R.W. Sounder Inc. and Rose Acre Farms have not settled claims against them and will remain in the fray.

According to the egg price fixing class action lawsuit, the defendant egg producers exploited the United Egg Producers Certification Program to artificially increase the price of eggs. The program allowed producers to display the UEP certification stamp on their products in exchange for submitting to certain restrictions on their means of egg production.

Participants were subject to specific cage size requirements and limits on the number of hens they could maintain. The program also prohibited backfilling, the introduction of younger hens into the same cages as older ones.

Certification was critically valuable once major retailers like Kroger and Walmart announced they would carry only UEP-certified eggs. Plaintiffs argued the producers took advantage of this certification program to restrict the production of eggs, thereby causing their price to go up.

This egg price fixing antitrust MDL has been going on since 2008. Plaintiffs survived a motion for dismissal in October 2011, when U.S. District Judge Gene Pratter declined to dismiss claims against Michael Foods, Daybreak Foods, Rose Acre Farms and Ohio Fresh Eggs.

The judge did dismiss claims against defendants United Egg Association and businesses under the banner of Hillandale Farms, however. Other defendants Sparboe Farms, Moark and Land O’ Lakes managed to settle claims against them within the next few years.

The direct purchaser plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Bernstein Liebhard LLP, Hausfeld LLP, Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Susman Godfrey LLP.

The indirect purchaser plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Lovell Stewart Halebian Jacobson LLP, Milberg LLP, Meredith & Narine LLC and Straus & Boies LLP.

The Egg Price-Fixing Multidistrict Litigation is In re: Processed Egg Products Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 2:08-md-02002, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: The Michael Foods egg price-fixing direct purchaser class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.