{"id":926275,"date":"2026-10-13T05:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T05:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/926275\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T05:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T05:46:09","slug":"egg-cartel-of-a-dozen-suppliers-manipulated-australian-market-for-years-regulator-alleges-australian-competition-and-consumer-commission-accc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/926275\/","title":{"rendered":"Egg \u2018cartel\u2019 of a dozen suppliers manipulated Australian market for years, regulator alleges | Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The competition watchdog is suing Australia\u2019s largest egg supplier, Sunny Queen, and 11 other producers over allegations they engaged in \u201ccartel conduct\u201d for at least six years to manipulate the market.<\/p>\n

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Tuesday filed a civil case in the federal court against Sunny Queen and 11 other egg companies, including Hall, McLean Farms and Kinross.<\/p>\n

Since at least October 2020, the ACCC alleges the businesses breached competition law by coordinating on production volumes, distribution, expansion plans and the culling of birds to manage perceived oversupply.<\/p>\n

The alleged coordination likely \u201csubstantially reduced competition for many years\u201d and potentially drove up consumer prices, the ACCC said in a statement announcing the legal action.<\/p>\n

The allegations relate to the production and supply of free-range, cage and organic eggs.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

It is the first case to involve \u201cconcerted practice\u201d allegations since the ACCC introduced a prohibition in 2017.<\/p>\n

A concerted practice involves alleged cooperation between businesses that goes beyond them acting independently in response to market conditions.<\/p>\n

The ACCC\u2019s chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said Sunny Queen, Hall and McLean Farms allegedly bought a property near Toowoomba to prevent rival egg suppliers from acquiring it, which resulted in \u201csubstantially lessening competition\u201d.<\/p>\n

The watchdog also alleged that Sunny Queen restricted how many eggs its rival Kinross could sell to customers, and prevented Kinross from selling its eggs to Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Metcash and Costco.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Australians individually eat approximately 250 eggs every year,\u201d Cass-Gottlieb said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have coordination of [what] should be independent business behaviour between major suppliers, then there is a threat to the benefits that competition can bring for such a staple product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cass-Gottlieb said the legal proceedings were reminder that businesses must make their production, supply and pricing decisions independently.<\/p>\n

The ACCC is seeking declarations, penalties, injunctions, costs and other orders.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Sunny Queen denied the allegations and said the company intended to defend the court proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cSunny Queen has cooperated fully with the ACCC throughout the course of its investigation,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this process is underway, it\u2019s business as usual for Sunny Queen and we will continue to supply Australian families with fresh, nutritious eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Pace Farm \u2013 which acquired Kinross in 2025 \u2013 acknowledged the ACCC proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reviewing the allegations and will respond through the appropriate legal process,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the matter is before the courts, we are unable to comment further at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has also contacted Hall and McLean Farms for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The competition watchdog is suing Australia\u2019s largest egg supplier, Sunny Queen, and 11 other producers over allegations they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-926275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}