Walmart Class Action Says Eggs Mislabeled to Command a Higher Price

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A California man says Walmart has been misleading consumers by labeling some of its eggs as having come from hens “with outdoor access,” when in fact those hens are kept in an enclosed barn at all times.

Plaintiff Donnie Lee Gibson II claims defendants Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its egg supplier Cal-Maine Foods Inc. have misrepresented the origin of eggs sold under Walmart’s Organic Marketside brand.

Gibson says Cal-Maine keeps these hens locked in a barn with a screened-in porch without giving them anything that reasonable consumers would recognize as true “outdoor access.”

Walmart then brands these eggs with the language “Free to roam, nest and perch in a protected barn with outdoor access” to get consumers to pay a higher price for them, he claims.

Gibson’s attorneys from firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP arranged for an investigation of a Cal-Maine industrial barn complex in Chase, Kansas used to produce eggs that are eventually sold at Walmart. Investigators say they did not find a single hen outdoors on the grounds.

The investigation allegedly revealed that the hens at these facilities are raised inside industrial barns, each built with an interior area and a roofed and screened porch. The porch is walled off from the interior area, with popholes that allow a few hens at a time to move from the interior to the porch.

The porch is only large enough to hold a fraction of the total number of hens inside the barn, the Walmart class action states. On the dates of the investigation, less than one percent of the total number of hens were observed on the porches, Gibson says.

Conditions like these are not what consumers are willing to pay extra for when they seek out eggs from hens with “outdoor access,” according to the Walmart class action lawsuit. Gibson cites a survey that shows most consumers understand the phrase “outdoor access” to mean that the hens “have access to outdoor pasture and fresh air throughout the day.”

Yet Walmart uses this alleged mislabeling to charge customers a premium for Organic Marketside eggs, Gibson claims. According to his lawsuit, Walmart charges $3.97 for a dozen Organic Marketside eggs labeled with cage-free and outdoor access indicators – compared to $2.98 for Marketside eggs labeled as merely cage-free, and $1.86 for Great Value brand eggs with no specialty description.

Gibson seeks to represent a plaintiff Class covering all consumers who purchased Cal-Maine eggs under Walmart’s Organic Marketside label in California within four years preceding the filing of this Walmart class action lawsuit.

He is asking for a court injunction barring Walmart and Cal-Maine from continuing the allegedly deceptive marketing of its eggs. He seeks restitution of all monies related to the alleged mislabeling, reimbursement of court costs and attorneys’ fees, and any other relief the court sees fit to grant.

Gibson’s attorneys are Elaine T. Byszewski and Steve W. Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The Walmart Organic Marketside Cage-Free Eggs Class Action Lawsuit is Gibson v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Case No. 4:18-cv-00134-KAW, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.