INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Illinois jury ruled this week that several major egg producers conspired to limit the U.S.'s supply of eggs in order to raise prices in a case stemming from a federal lawsuit originally filed 12 years ago.
A jury unanimously delivered its verdict Tuesday in the Northern District of Illinois and damages will be decided in a trial scheduled for next week.
The suppliers include the family company of an Indiana egg farmer running for the U.S. Senate in the state.
Attorneys for the four egg suppliers named in the lawsuit did not immediately return phone messages on Wednesday.
Court documents say the jury found the food manufacturers suffered injury in the timeframe of 2004 to 2008.
Other food manufacturers joining as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the egg producers are General Mills, Inc. and Nestle USA, Inc.
The jury found the egg suppliers who participated in the conspiracy were 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 John Rust. »
