Walmart Class Action Lawsuit Challenges ‘Farm Fresh’ Eggs

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.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Michael Foods Inc. and its subsidiary M.G. Waldbaum Company a/b/n Willamette Egg Farms LLC a/b/n Nest Fresh Egg Farms have been hit with a class action lawsuit challenging the labeling of private label eggs sold at Walmart.

According to the Walmart egg labeling class action lawsuit, the Nest Fresh defendants are responsible for producing and marketing shell eggs under a private label for Walmart, which are sold to consumers in the state of Washington.

“Defendants market these private label eggs as having provided the laying hens ‘with outdoor access,’” the Walmart egg labeling class action lawsuit says. “Consumers typically pay a significant premium for such eggs, due to the touted improvements to the welfare of laying hens, which is itself important to consumers as well as the perceived health benefits from eating the eggs of better treated hens.”

However, plaintiff Jaime Silva of Everett, Wash., alleges that an investigation by his attorneys found that the Nest Fresh hens that supply the private label eggs to Walmart are confined to industrial barns without access to the outdoors.

The Walmart egg labeling class action lawsuit alleges the hens are kept inside enclosed structures. Although the industrial barns have enclosed porches, these porches are allegedly fully roofed and screened. Silva claims that reasonable consumers would not consider these enclosed porches to be classified as allowing the hens outdoor access.

Further, only a fraction of Nest Fresh hens are able to access the enclosed porches because they have a limited number of access points, Silva says. He claims that thousands of hens are contained in each industrial barn and that an individual hen would need to travel over numerous other hens in order to be able to access the porch.

“Thus, consumers paying more for these eggs have been deceived,” Silva alleges in the Walmart egg labeling class action lawsuit. He points to a recent survey that allegedly demonstrates that reasonable consumers believe that outdoor access means that all of the animals have access to fresh air and outdoor pasture throughout the day.

According to the Walmart class action lawsuit, Silva regularly purchased Organic Marketside private label shell eggs from Washington Walmart stores. He claims he read the packaging which indicated the hens were provided “with outdoor access.”

Silva says that he and the putative Class Members would not have purchased the Walmart Nest Fresh eggs, or would have paid less for them, if they had known the hens did not actually have access to the outdoors.

He filed the Walmart Nest Fresh eggs class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a proposed Class of consumers who purchased Organic Marketside eggs from a Walmart supplied by a porch-based industrial egg farm.

The Walmart class action lawsuit asserts claims for violations of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act and unjust enrichment. Silva seeks restitution, injunctive relief, and any other relief the court deems appropriate.

Silva is represented by Steve W. Berman and Elaine T. Byszewski of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The Walmart Egg Labeling Class Action Lawsuit is Jaime Silva v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., et al., Case No. 2:18-cv-00324, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.