Hundreds of statements made by alleged co-conspirators to the defendants in the national egg antitrust litigation over price-fixing will be admitted into evidence, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said that the direct action plaintiffs (DAPs) in the antitrust case sought to admit hundreds of alleged co-conspirator statements against defendants United Egg Producers (UEP), United States Egg Marketers (USEM) and Rose Acre Farms, in an effort to show the defendants were involved in a price-fixing conspiracy.

"To do so, the DAPs must prove the existence of the conspiracy they allege—a multi-pronged scheme to reduce the domestic supply of eggs as a means of increasing egg prices—by a  preponderance of the evidence," Pratter wrote in her Oct. 31 opinion. "To use the statements against each defendant, the DAPs must prove that each individual defendant knowingly agreed to join this overarching conspiratorial scheme. Finally, the DAPs must show that the statements were made by a co-conspirator in the course of and in furtherance of the overarching conspiracy."

She added, "Because the DAPs have proven the existence of the conspiracy and each defendant's participation as required for this evidentiary ruling, many of these co-conspirator statements will be admissible at trial."

Jan Levine of Pepper Hamilton, an attorney for the defendants, did not respond to a request for comment.

The DAPs are represented by Richard Arnold of Kenny Nachwalter in Miami. He could not be reached for comment on Thursday's ruling.

Recently in the litigation, Pratter denied Heinz's request to transfer its case against egg suppliers. Heinz had pushed to have its claims moved to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois because that's where Kraft's claims are pending and the two are owned by the same parent company, thanks to a 2015 merger.

"Heinz brought this action over eight years ago and the Philadelphia trial will start in less than two weeks. Kraft and Heinz merged in 2015," Pratter said. "The Kraft and Heinz claims have independently coexisted for over four years since the merger. Whatever benefits Heinz may seek in trying the Kraft Heinz claims together was just as prevalent back then as it is now."

In 2017, Pratter approved a $75 million settlement from Michael Foods, a subsidiary of packaged food producing conglomerate Post, to settle claims against it.

The settlement, reached nearly a dozen years ago, was given final approval Nov. 17, 2017. The class action, brought by direct purchasers and suppliers of eggs, continues against other defendants.

The plaintiffs claim the nation's major egg producers were involved in a conspiracy to control and limit the supply of eggs in an effort to increase prices, allegedly through short-term production restrictions, such as slaughtering hens early, a pretextual animal welfare program and a "calculated" series of exports of eggs at below-market prices.