Minnesota AG accuses Sparboe Farms of price gouging

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit against Sparboe Farms, accusing the company of gouging the price of eggs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roy Graber Headshot
(perhapzz | Bigstock)
(perhapzz | Bigstock)

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit against Sparboe Farms, accusing the company of gouging the price of eggs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit was filed on September 3 in Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District Court in Hennepin County.

According to the suit, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency on March 13, 2020, and one week later he issued an executive order that prohibited excessive increases in the prices of essential items during the COVID-19 peacetime emergency.

Ellison alleges that shortly after the executive order was issued, his office began to receive reports of "excessive and opportunistic pricing” of eggs.

“Despite the requirements of Executive Order 20-10, which had the force and effect of law during the peacetime emergency, Sparboe, a Minnesota egg producer, sold its eggs at vastly market-up prices to Minnesota customers in voluation of the order. Sparboe did not increase its egg prices to recoup increased costs; rather, Sparboe sought to take advantage of the increased demand for eggs due to the pandemic and profit from the crisis while it could, causing economic harm to Minnesota consumers.”

The lawsuit also contains text that stated that the egg industry has attributed pandemic-era price increases to price predictions from Urner Barry, and that the industry uses Urner Barry as a basis for wholesale pricing.

Ellison’s lawsuit follows those filed by other states’ attorneys general in which egg producers were accused of gouging.

A lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against Cal-Maine Foods was dismissed without prejudice. In New York, Attorney General Letitia James filed a suit against Hillandale Farms, in which a settlement was reached.

Other similar suits filed include one filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra against Dakota Layers and its subsidiary California Farms LLC, and another suit filed by Wester Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey against Dutt & Wagner.

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