--- title: "Cal-Maine and Egg Producers Said to Near Settlement in DOJ Price-Fixing Probe" description: "Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. egg producer, and other suppliers are reportedly close to settling a Justice Department antitrust investigation into alleged egg price coordination, according to a Wall Street Journal report — though no deal has been announced and the terms are unconfirmed." category: "Companies" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies author: "Marcus Feldman" published: 2026-06-25T06:42:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-25T06:42:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/cal-maine-and-egg-producers-said-to-near-settlement-in-doj-price-fixing-probe tags: ["cal-maine", "antitrust", "doj", "egg-prices", "food"] --- # Cal-Maine and Egg Producers Said to Near Settlement in DOJ Price-Fixing Probe Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. egg producer, and other suppliers are reportedly close to settling a Justice Department antitrust investigation into alleged egg price coordination, according to a Wall Street Journal report — though no deal has been announced and the terms are unconfirmed. The largest U.S. egg producer may be close to drawing a line under a federal antitrust investigation — though, for now, that is a report rather than a done deal. Cal-Maine Foods and other egg suppliers are nearing a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations they coordinated egg prices, [the Wall Street Journal reported](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4607062-cal-maine-egg-suppliers-near-settlement-in-doj-price-probe-report), according to accounts of its reporting. No settlement has been announced, the terms have not been disclosed, and talks could still fall apart. Nothing is final. ## How the case got here The reported talks follow a year of mounting legal pressure. Cal-Maine disclosed in 2025 that it had received a civil investigative demand — a formal request for information — from the DOJ's Antitrust Division. By April 2026, [Reuters reported](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/energy/articles/justice-department-targets-leading-us-213322148.html) that the department was preparing a civil antitrust lawsuit against Cal-Maine and the privately held producer Versova, with the agency saying a settlement remained possible. Hickman's Egg Ranch has also been named in connection with the probe. ## What's alleged The core allegation is that producers coordinated their pricing through an industry price-reporting service. Investigators have focused on Expana — formerly Urner Barry — which compiles widely used wholesale egg-price benchmarks. Prosecutors contend the producers fed sales data to the service and then used the resulting benchmarks to move prices in step rather than competing, [according to reporting on the case](https://www.wattagnet.com/blogs/hens-and-trends/blog/15822941/us-egg-producers-face-antitrust-suit-amid-hpai-questions). Some critics have argued producers used bird-flu disruption as cover to restrict supply; the industry disputes that. **Price-fixing** — an agreement among competitors to set or stabilize prices instead of competing — is illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the foundational U.S. competition law that the DOJ's Antitrust Division enforces. The probe described here is civil, not criminal; a civil settlement typically takes the form of a court-filed consent decree under which a company agrees to change its conduct, sometimes with a penalty and often without admitting wrongdoing. Cal-Maine has rejected the price-fixing framing, describing itself as a "price-taker" in a fragmented market of hundreds of producers and saying it has expanded its flock to add supply, not curb it. ## The egg-price backdrop The investigation grew out of an extraordinary run-up in egg prices. U.S. retail prices hit record highs in early 2025, with the national average spiking sharply before easing in early 2026. The primary documented driver was avian influenza: the H5N1 outbreak that spread through commercial flocks from 2022 forced the culling of well over 100 million egg-laying hens, choking supply. The dispute at the heart of the antitrust case is whether prices rose more than that supply shock alone can explain. ## Why it matters Cal-Maine (Nasdaq: CALM), based in Mississippi, produces a large share of the eggs Americans buy and earned record profits during the period of elevated prices. A settlement would remove a significant legal overhang for the company, even if it does not directly lower prices for shoppers — civil antitrust enforcement aims to restore competition, not refund buyers. Separate private class-action suits seeking damages are proceeding in parallel. For now, the key qualifier is that the settlement remains, by all accounts, a report: neither Cal-Maine nor the DOJ has publicly confirmed it. ## Sources - [Cal-Maine, egg suppliers near settlement in DOJ price probe: report](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4607062-cal-maine-egg-suppliers-near-settlement-in-doj-price-probe-report) - [Justice Department targets leading US egg producers in antitrust case, WSJ reports](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/energy/articles/justice-department-targets-leading-us-213322148.html) - [US egg producers face antitrust suit amid HPAI questions](https://www.wattagnet.com/blogs/hens-and-trends/blog/15822941/us-egg-producers-face-antitrust-suit-amid-hpai-questions)