A federal jury in Illinois has ordered $17.7 million in damages to be paid to multiple food manufacturing companies. This amount is tripled to over $53 million under federal law. The companies had brought a lawsuit against major egg producers over a conspiracy to limit the egg supply in the United States.
The jury determined that the egg producers used various methods to limit the domestic egg supply, causing product prices to increase during the 2000s. Their verdict was reached last week in the Northern District of Illinois. Due to federal antitrust law, the damages are automatically tripled, bringing the total to over $53 million.
The defendants deny all the claims, while the egg suppliers, including the family company of its former Chair John Rust, are planning to appeal the jury’s decision. The jury found that the egg suppliers reduced the overall egg supply in the domestic market by exporting eggs abroad. Additionally, they limited the number of chickens by means such as cage space, early slaughter, and flock reduction, according to court documents.
The food manufacturers who joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the egg producers are Kraft Foods Global, Inc., The Kellogg Company, General Mills, Inc., and Nestle USA, Inc. The jury identified the egg suppliers who participated in the conspiracy as Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., United Egg Producers, Inc., United States Egg Marketers, Inc., and Rose Acre Farms, Inc., a southern Indiana-based company previously chaired by Rust.
Not all of the egg suppliers have accepted the jury’s verdict. The second-largest egg producer in the U.S., Rose Acre Farms, and Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., have both expressed their intentions to seek post-trial relief and consider their legal options, including an appeal.
There was a political twist to this case, as Rust attacked his opponent U.S. Rep. Jim Banks for siding with “mega corporations over the American farmer” in the aftermath of the jury’s ruling. In response, Banks criticized Rust, saying, “Hoosiers aren’t going to vote for a crook.”
The case has also led to legal disputes for John Rust, who is currently involved in a lawsuit with Indiana’s Secretary of State over a contested state law that could prevent his name from getting on the primary ballot as a Republican candidate.
This ruling has major implications and has brought to light the lengths companies will go to in order to manipulate the supply and demand of essential food products, revealing the complex and sometimes unlawful underpinnings of the food industry.
