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The New York Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against egg producer Hillandale Farms, accusing the company of engaging in prize-winning activities during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the complaint, filed in the Supreme Court of New York on Tuesday, Hillandale Farms increased the prices of more than four million cartons of eggs in March and April of this year. The eggs were sold to groceries, food wholesalers, U.S. military commissioners, and other organizations, the lawsuit says. This is just one example of how egg producers nationwide had sudden and drastic price increases, the complaint claims.
“During the coronavirus pandemic, Hillandale raised its egg prices to double, triple, and even double the prices it submitted for the same products in January 2020,” the complaint states. “Hillandale has raised the price of eggs in New York not to offset increased costs – which she acknowledges have not affected her prices – but simply to line up her own pockets and benefit New Yorkers in a time of crisis.”
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The result of the increased prices, the lawsuit claims, was that “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of New York consumers” were harmed because they had to make “sharply increased” egg prices during an emergency. The lawsuit notes that egg sales in the week of March 16 had increased by 86% compared to the year before, “partly due to panic buying by consumers fearing that food supplies would be depleted in groceries.”
The lawsuit cites Hillandale’s egg prices in sales to wholesaler Western Beef. Between Jan. 1 and March 12 of this year, eggs were sold for between 59 cents and $ 1.10 per tenth. After a series of increases, the price on March 29 was $ 2.93. The law firm’s law firm quotes Hillandale as saying that its pricing “has nothing to do with costs and or overhead” and “is based solely on Market.”
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Hillandale Farms did not respond to a request for comment.
“While this pandemic was destroying our country, Hillandale exploited hard-working New Yorkers to line up their own pockets,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “In less than two months, Hillandale made millions by defrauding our most vulnerable communities and our service providers, actions that are both illegal and really rotten. I will always stand up for working people, especially if they are exploited by corporate greed.”
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James’ office is seeking restitution, such as damages, disgorgement of profits and a $ 25,000 civil fine.
