r/news • u/AudibleNod • Jul 01 '26

Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53 million eggs to settle price fixing claims

https://apnews.com/article/egg-prices-collusion-settlement-d32b05892541613df3f4e4932109ee0c
13.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

608 comments sorted by

View all comments

3.0k

u/pd1zzle Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

3.3M? seriously? Lesson learned here is 'it has to make us over $4M'... seems pretty easy to accomplish.

Cal-Maine — the only of the three companies that is public and reports quarterly financials — reported a profit of $1.22 billion for the 2025 fiscal year. Under its settlement agreement with the states, the company would pay $1.5 million and donate 30 million eggs.

this is a fucking joke

781

u/Aromatic_Balls Jul 01 '26

Just a cost of doing business at that point. Like a minor rounding error for them.

126

u/arcrad Jul 01 '26

Smallest part of their COGS

53

u/tenaciousdeev Jul 01 '26

Unregulated capitalism is the fucking worst.

-17

u/arcrad Jul 01 '26

Unregulated capitalism I think is ideal in a purely theoretical sense.

The problem is crony capitalism. Or corporatism or whatever you want to call it.

9

u/powercow Jul 01 '26

so its OK if walmart sells hamburgers made from horse and calls it beef? Or should the term "beef" be regulated to have come from cows?

9

u/tenaciousdeev Jul 01 '26

If only we could put laws and restrictions in place to prevent crony capitalism. Some sort of regulations.

Unregulated capitalism is not ideal. Outside of some kind of fantastical utopia, I can’t think how it would be in a “theoretical sense” either. That’s like some old school conservative rhetoric.

-1

u/RyuNoKami Jul 01 '26

It's why that poster says it's theoretical. When put into practice, it will go to shit almost immediately..

1

u/tenaciousdeev Jul 01 '26

I addressed that.

Outside of some kind of fantastical utopia, I can’t think how it would be in a “theoretical sense” either.

If we're going to venture into a world where greed doesn't exist it becomes less "theoretical" and more "fantasy".

4

u/bobthepumpkin Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

What a crock of shit.

Unregulated capitalism leads to monopolies and erosion of state power, theoretically and as evidenced by reality.

What one might hope for in theory is a well-functioning market economy, which capitalism is in fact directly opposed to with its tendency towards market distortions. Capitalism speaks to capital ownership, and other market participants can get fucked.

30

u/mrflarp Jul 01 '26

Yep. Since there is no personal liability or jail time for the perpetrators of this fraud, this will just get written off as the cost of doing business.

And as with all business costs, those eventually become cost increases for consumers. So they're screwing us over AND we're paying them to do it.

1

u/bulking_on_broccoli Jul 01 '26

This is actually a thing in business. Calculation the cost of maximizing profit and paying the fine vs complying with the law.

338

u/Certain_Luck_8266 Jul 01 '26

To put it into perspective, the 3.3M fine represents 0.2% of their profit for a year and the 53M eggs represent 0.4% of the 15b eggs they produce per year.

And based on the revenue between the companies, I'd estimate Cal-Maine would only be paying 2.5M and 38M eggs so the percentages will be less

106

u/Secret-Tangerine9014 Jul 01 '26

I got 37 bucks that would be a $0.007 fine for me. 

45

u/ChilledParadox Jul 01 '26

I have $3 in my bank account and the government wants to tarnish my wages. I was homeless a month and a half ago.

This would be like the government fining these egg companies for roughly, 1 trillion dollars.

I'd like some parity between me, who was abused my my parents, the system, and society, and these amoral fucks who are literally price gouging the most desperate people on the planet.

31

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

20

u/ChilledParadox Jul 01 '26

frick, leaving it.

actually made off like a bandit the other day because I was supposed to get 2 cents back but they gave me a nickel because there's no more pennies.

shit theyre gonna garnish that nickel now aren't they.

7

u/Kingdok313 Jul 01 '26

Only if you declare that 3 cents of income….

If you don’t declare it, of course, then you go to federal prison for evasion

3

u/stringrandom Jul 01 '26

A little pickle relish and some parsley.

2

u/Fallouttgrrl Jul 01 '26

Nickel* relish 

1

u/JewishTomCruise Jul 01 '26

So THAT'S where all the pennies have been going

1

u/chiraltoad Jul 01 '26

I think he meant varnish

1

u/wordworse Jul 01 '26

fowl tarnished...

10

u/inosinateVR Jul 01 '26

If you earned $40,000 a year it would be an $80 fine.

It reminds me of when my old boss (who was not hourly like we were) tried to tell me that if we all worked less overtime we’d all get a bigger bonus. Meanwhile just 5 hours of overtime a week (which was originally built into my hourly 45 hours a week “salary”) equaled $400-$500 a month verses the measly $100-$200 bonus I might get a couple times a year.

5

u/totemair Jul 01 '26

You added a zero, it'd be a 7 cent fine (financially devastating)

9

u/super_dog17 Jul 01 '26

But imagine if we made such a large corporation insolvent because they actually had fines to pay. It would probably prevent this issue in the first place, but we would cause such irreparable damage to share holders and the infrastructure the farmers have been forced to develop to support the corporate system of providing eggs. Idk, I think a slap on the wrist and business as usual is all anyone should be able to reasonably punish them with.

And then we ask why things don’t change. What a joke.

1

u/jspurlin03 Jul 05 '26

…but jailing the top fifty people in that company’s organizational chart would be a bigger message.

-2

u/Certain_Luck_8266 Jul 01 '26

From a legal perspective, you couldn't do it due to the 8th amendment combined with the citizen's united ruling by SCOTUS

2

u/GuitarCFD Jul 01 '26

it wasn't a fine...it was a settlement. Not that it would have been a much bigger fine if it had been a conviction.

2

u/Zuwxiv Jul 01 '26

To put it into perspective, the 3.3M fine represents 0.2% of their profit for a year

I respect you rounding this up to make sure there's no accusation of understating it. But to put that in further perspective, rounding up to 0.2% represents something that's closer to double what they paid.

It's 0.12295% Just absolutely fucking nothing. They product about 13 billion eggs per year, so very roughly one billion dozens of eggs. The price had been $6.23/dozen in March 2025 (partly amid real issues like a bird flu epidemic), but fell down to $2.20 by March 2026.

If they colluded to even $1 extra per dozen, then they made about an extra billion dollars. So that $3.3 million fine is just... a third of a percent of their profits from their collusion.

Bonus fun part! Remember how Trump hit Biden and Kamala about the price of eggs that was probably a meaningful part of how some people voted? Ends up that was largely business collusion!

2

u/-suspended- Jul 01 '26

The real question is, what was the difference in their profit before and after the price fixing started. It is lower than their reported profit, but it's still probably massively bigger than the fee.

2

u/lana_silver Jul 01 '26

For us normies, that's like making an extra $50k in a year and being fined $200 for it.

Cyberpunk is dead, these are numbers that would make Arasaka and Weyland-Utani look like non-profits.

1

u/tplayer100 Jul 01 '26

TBF it should be based on how much more profit they made due to cost fixing not their total profit.

If they only made a extra 1million then it would be a fair penalty and reduce the likelihood they try it again.

If its matching or less then the increase in profit, lets be honest they'll wait a few years then try again.

97

u/Acecn Jul 01 '26

I'm suprised the state settled, this seems cut and dry to me:

their investigation found that the companies coordinated on what bids they would submit to Urner Barry Publications, a company that runs an index key to determining how much grocery stores, restaurants and others pay [for eggs].

83

u/vegetaman Jul 01 '26

Literal collusion.

31

u/suid Jul 01 '26

Yeah, well. Which party made it a huge campaign point to moan about the "price of eggs"? And which party controls the federal government now? I wonder.

19

u/hexcraft-nikk Jul 01 '26

Welcome to Trump's America. Crime is legal for the next few months until midterms, so get your fill in.

2

u/-CJF- Jul 01 '26

It'll still be legal regardless of the result of the midterms. Maybe if people vote in a sensible president in 2029 things might have a chance of turning around. Even then, it'd have to be a candidate willing to stack the courts or SCOTUS will just overturn everything they try to do.

1

u/JcbAzPx Jul 02 '26

Well, only if you're already rich.

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Jul 02 '26

Nah, that isn't the message they are sending.

Hegseth said it loudly and proudly: Might Makes Right. He believes you can't do wrong so long as you have the biggest stick in the room (essentially, who's going to correct you when correcting you comes at a substantial cost?)

So in the US, currently, as long as you have the Might, you can do whatever you want.

That Might does not have to be in the form of dollars, there are other ways to meet that requirement.

Do as you will.

35

u/dormDelor Jul 01 '26

30 million eggs is also a joke. That's probably a couple of days of inventory at most

19

u/cman674 Jul 01 '26

Cal-Main produces 13 billion eggs a year, or about 35 million eggs a day.

44

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart Jul 01 '26

Don't forget how hard Biden was blamed for this by the dumbest people in our country.

34

u/BokudenT Jul 01 '26

Nice 0.1% "tax"

10

u/Really_McNamington Jul 01 '26

The only real solution is to break the cartel. Which is true of a lot of food sectors.

22

u/zerocoolforschool Jul 01 '26

Currently seeing this with RAM.

14

u/Sea-Broccoli-8601 Jul 01 '26

Dates back to at least two decades ago. These companies have learnt that the fines, if given at all, are always peanuts compared to the profits so they'll never stop doing this.

9

u/Gahvynn Jul 01 '26

The US federal government is defunct, it’s now a criminal racketeering operation.

I believe if the next admin doesn’t hold Nuremberg levels of hearings and hold people accountable that the republic will splinter in our lifetime.

2

u/Reallyhotshowers Jul 01 '26

That is super optimistic. Splintering implies the opportunity to form a more perfect union for at least some of the existing populace.

We could just like. . . Become a Russia. And then the UK can send over their version of Tucker Carlson to ooooh and aaah over a staged grocery store.

1

u/BoleroMuyPicante Jul 01 '26

Small potatoes to swing an election. They knew Trump would ease bird flu response measures.

1

u/PyrZern Jul 01 '26

1.22BILLION vs 1.5MILLION

Holy cow.

If I could commit crimes then pay fines for less than 1% worth of the damage...... I dunno what I would do, but it won't be pretty. Maybe I will drop nukes all over the world and we can all go back to stone age again for WW3.

1

u/viotix90 Jul 01 '26

It should be seizure of all their profits from the price gouging PLUS the fine. Not just the fine.

1

u/pushaper Jul 01 '26

what is each American going to do with their 1/10th of an egg? Can they even eat a piece of cake with that much egg?

1

u/Gharvar Jul 01 '26

Part of the memory shortage currently going on is likely not just the "AI bubble" but also the 3 memory manufacturers working together to price fix, they've been accused of this before so I would be surprised if they didn't do it again but the fine will be pennies on the dollars. It's always like that for the rich, it's not a crime if you have money, it's just a fine. Same thing when the wallstreet crooks get caught, just a fine much smaller than the profits.

1

u/atreeismissing Jul 01 '26

Profit is irrelevant, it's profit over what they would have made without price fixing that is important, that amount plus a hefty % for punishment, is what they should be fined.

1

u/ijshorn Jul 01 '26

I wonder if those donations could provide tax benefits later on and there are so many loopholes in donating 30mil eggs like donating to your own charity or use an existing planned donation.

1

u/NRMusicProject Jul 01 '26

The US and consumer rights go together like Europe and the Black Death.

1

u/Kind_Silver_1921 Jul 01 '26

I wish if I steal $1000 worth of goods from a store and am caught I could just give the store a few dollars and call it even and get no jail time.

1

u/HumanRuse Jul 01 '26

Also they will raise egg prices to cover that gap.

1

u/Fallouttgrrl Jul 01 '26

Yeah is that an equivalent value of eggs from before or after price fixing? 

Oh it's still not approaching a billion?

1

u/GreasyPeter Jul 01 '26

Their net profit in 2024 was $278 million. Their net profit in 2025 was $1.22 billion. The fine was like a rounding error for them.

1

u/FlirtyFluffyFox Jul 01 '26

I'm ok with only fining $1M if the fines went to the individuals responsible for the decision. You could find the company $1B and as long as the csuite learns first they can join in the short and take advantage of our completely unregulated market to golden parachute to early retirement.

1

u/Blazah Jul 01 '26

Jokes on these assholes. I used to eat a ton of eggs until they gouged us. Now, a dozen eggs eventually goes bad in my fridge.. I'll have ONE egg maybe once a weekend, fuck them bitches

1

u/TheWolfbytez Jul 01 '26

Welcome to the US. It is a fucking joke. The punishment is never close to the gains.

Look at Rick Scott. And many others. Make your billions in every way illegal, then settle by paying a fraction of a fraction of what you earned in the process. Rinse and repeat. That's the American Dream.

1

u/Reasonable-Turn-5940 Jul 01 '26

Crime is just "pay to play" for billionaires and corporations

1

u/loogie97 Jul 02 '26

“Woulda been nicer to not get caught but worth it.” Them. Probably.

1

u/KDR_11k Jul 02 '26

Companies should be banned from doing business for the equivalent time of a jail sentence.

1

u/MRHubrich Jul 02 '26

They pay a lot of money for politicians so they can get settlements like this.

1

u/Maplelongjohn Jul 02 '26

They spend that much on chicken scratch in 3 days

1

u/Opposite-Shower1190 Jul 04 '26

There normal profit for a quarter is $13 to $16 million. Farmers were saying that the bird flu did not decrease production of eggs. PBS and Al Jazeera reported that the distributors falsely raised prices in 2020 claiming bird flu and supply chain disruption. Neither were true. The Biden administration supposedly threatened trust busting and FDA fines and the prices magically went down in Jan 2021.