Jury awards corporations $17.7 million in egg price-fixing suit

CHICAGO (CN) — A 12-year-old federal antitrust case against the nation’s largest egg producers came to a tentative close on Friday, after a jury delivered a verdict awarding four food corporations $17.7 million in damages.

“We’ve reached the end of the road, as they say,” presiding U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger said.

Jurors in awarded Kraft, Kellogg’s, General Mills and Nestle the money after a two-day damages trial in Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse, the second half of a two-phase litigation that began last month. In the preceding liability trial, which concluded Nov. 21, the same jury found that U.S. egg producers like Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms conspired to artificially squeeze the domestic egg supply, and subsequently inflate egg prices, for years.

In the final award, Kraft received roughly $12.8 million; Kellogg’s about $3.2 million; General Mills about $914,000; and Nestle about $809,000.

Attorneys for the egg producers declined to comment on whether they planned to appeal the jury’s decisions.

The four plaintiff corporations first sued the egg producers in December 2011, accusing them of using multiple tactics to jack up egg prices starting as early as 1998. However, the jury found the corporations only suffered damages from the price fixing between October 2004 and December 2008. No individual consumers were represented in the suit.

The jury deliberated for more than a day before convicting the producers of price-fixing conspiracy, but only met for a few hours before deciding on the amount of damages the corporations should receive. On Wednesday, when the damages trial began, the four companies requested about $25.4 million collectively.

That figure came from an analysis by Indiana University economics professor Michael Baye, who took the stand Wednesday as an expert witness. Baye found that between 2004 and 2008, Kraft alone spent over $70 million on eggs, with Kellogg’s paying $15 million, General Mills about $3.9 million and Nestle about $6.5 million. This, the economist said, represented Kraft overpaying for eggs by about $18 million; while Kellogg’s overpaid by more than $4.6 million; General Mills over $1.3 million; and Nestle a little over $1.1 million.

After the jury delivered their verdict, Seeger thanked the jurors for their seven weeks of service during both phases of the litigation. He noted that seven weeks is more than double the 21 days it takes for a chicken egg to hatch.

“Seven weeks is almost army basic training,” the judge said. “Seven weeks is a long time.”

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