ACCC alleges anti-competitive conduct by Australian egg producer

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges that major Australian egg producers have breached competition laws by coordinating on production and supply of eggs in Australia, in civil proceedings filed in the Federal Court by the ACCC on 13 October 2026.

It is alleged that since at least October 2020 key egg suppliers and producers coordinated on a range of business decisions including production volumes, distribution, expansion plans and culling to manage perceived oversupply, in a way that likely substantially reduced competition for many years.

This is the first case brought by the ACCC to include concerted practice allegations since the prohibition was introduced in 2017. A concerted practice involves cooperation between businesses that goes beyond them acting independently in response to market conditions.

There are 12 entities named in the legal proceedings filed by the ACCC, including: Sunny Queen Pty Ltd (Sunny Queen), Doug Hall Poultry Pty Ltd (Hall), Alpair Pty Ltd trading as McLean Farms (McLean Farms), Ellerslie Free Range Farms Pty Ltd (Ellerslie) and Kinross Farm Pty Ltd (Kinross).

“Our investigation has uncovered alleged widespread anti-competitive conduct in the egg industry that we allege has impacted the supply of eggs to Australian consumers since at least 2020. This alleged conduct is extremely serious, which is why we have commenced this Federal Court action,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

“Fair competition in the supply of fresh food such as eggs is extremely important. Anti-competitive conduct disadvantages Australian consumers, who can face reduced choice and higher prices, as well as those businesses seeking to compete fairly or who are seeking to enter markets to provide competing supply.”

The alleged conduct related to the production and supply of eggs including free-range, cage and organic eggs.

“These companies are alleged to have coordinated in a range of decisions about their business operations, including the retailers each business could supply, what volumes they could produce and when to cull birds to manage periods of perceived over-supply,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

“We allege this coordination between Sunny Queen, Hall and McLean Farms extended to purchasing a property in Pittsworth, Queensland, for the purpose of preventing its acquisition by rival egg suppliers. We also allege this had the effect of substantially lessening competition.”

“We also allege 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 or Costco,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

For more information, visit the ACCC website.

Image credit: iStock.com/dem10