The grocery stores and restaurants that have alleged price-fixing among the country's major egg producers can present an economist as an expert witness while they seek to get class certification, the federal judge handling the case has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the decision in an opinion in In re Processed Egg Products Antitrust Litigation.

Since 1993, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued the standards to which expert witnesses are to be held in its decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, district courts have played the role of gatekeeper, ensuring that expert witnesses offer reliable scientific evidence to the courts.