Walmart, Costco unfairly boosted egg prices in California, according to lawsuit

Do you feel as though eggs cost too much lately?

A newly filed federal class-action lawsuit accuses Amazon, Walmart, Costco and a host of other stores of price-gouging grocery shoppers on eggs in California during the coronavirus outbreak, a suit posted on Bloomberg Law says.

“As in any time of economic turmoil, there are those who seek to profit from the misery of millions,” the lawsuit says.

The suit also names several farms and egg producers, along with Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Raley’s, Save Mart, Albertsons, Kroger and Winco.

But the suit notes it “does not assert that each and every defendant engaged in price-gouging. Rather, plaintiffs assert that, at a minimum, some of these defendants did so.”

Costco and Trader Joe’s denied the accusations, Delish reported. Both said they had not raised egg prices even as suppliers charged stores higher prices.

Walmart and Whole Foods did not respond to requests for comment, according to the publication.

The suit was filed April 20 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by a group of consumers represented by the San Diego office of the Davis & Norris law firm.

The suit claims the farms, suppliers and stores used a March 4 emergency declaration by Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to hike egg prices.

“The price of eggs nearly tripled between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the end of March,” the suit says. “Egg prices have remained much more than 10 percent higher than they were prior to the declaration of emergency.”

The lawsuit seeks to represent everyone who purchased eggs in California that were handled by the stores, farms or supplies named in the suit during the pandemic emergency.

It also seeks an injunction against inflating egg prices.

One supplier named in the suit, Cal-Maine Foods, also has been sued by the Texas attorney general’s office on allegations of price-gouging, the Houston Chronicle reports.

This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Walmart, Costco unfairly boosted egg prices in California, according to lawsuit."