BREAKING: America's largest egg producers and industry groups illegally rigged the market to drive up the price of eggs, a jury has found.
Their price-fixing scheme included exporting millions of eggs overseas to drive up U.S. prices around Thanksgiving and Easter.

This antitrust suit covers actions from 1999 to 2008—the egg industry has been fighting it for 12 years.
But as we've documented, corporate profiteering by Big Ag is continuing to influence the price of eggs.

"After about 10 hours of deliberation, the jury found that egg producers Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms, trade group United Egg Producers and exporting cooperative United States Egg Marketers unlawfully rigged the egg market by coordinating measures including early hen slaughters, exports, cage space increases and bans on cage backfilling, which involved replacing ill or dead laying hens with new ones.
"The verdict tees the parties up for a second trial phase, slated for the Wednesday and Thursday after Thanksgiving, during which the same jury will determine how much to award in damages to Kraft, Kellogg, General Mills and Nestle, who launched their antitrust claims nearly 12 years ago. [...]
"The price-fixing scheme involved various initiatives that restricted hen, and thus egg, supply, and United Egg Producers wanted all members and the entire egg industry to participate, the food companies asserted. The trade group encouraged egg producers to prematurely slaughter still-productive hens and promoted 'early molting,' where producers caused hens to lose their feathers and temporarily stop laying eggs by removing feed and water, and keeping them in dark areas, they claimed."
law360.com