Jury orders egg suppliers to pay $17.7 million in damages for price gouging in 2000s

A federal jury in Illinois has delivered a verdict of $17.7 million in damages to several major food manufacturing companies who sued egg producers over a conspiracy to limit the supply of eggs in the U.S. years ago. That amount is tripled to more than $53 million under federal law. The ruling came Friday in a long-running lawsuit against suppliers that was filed in federal court in 2011. Food manufacturing giants including Kraft Foods Global, Inc. and The Kellogg Company argued that egg suppliers limited the U.S. domestic supply of eggs through various means to increase prices. Two of the egg suppliers indicated they would appeal the decision Friday.