COK Versus the Egg Industry... in Court

In February 2005, COK and four egg consumers filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia Superior Court against Giant Food, Brookville Supermarket, and Lehman's Egg Service, alleging that the industry trade group United Egg Producers' "Animal Care Certified" logo found on egg cartons falsely suggests to shoppers that hens receive humane care.

COK's complaints against the "Animal Care Certified" logo and inadequate husbandry guidelines that cause enormous suffering to laying hens have a long history. Several investigations at "Animal Care Certified" factory farms (click here to read about our latest egg farm investigations), damning exposés, national media attention, and filings of federal petitions have all helped consumers from coast to coast know that the hens laying "Animal Care Certified" eggs are anything but well cared for.

What's more, the Better Business Bureau, the country's leading consumer protection organization, agrees that the logo is deceptive. In 2003 and again in 2004 (the latter upon appeal), the Better Business Bureau ruled in favor of COK's complaint that the "Animal Care Certified" logo indeed misleads consumers who reasonably would expect that hens laying "Animal Care Certified" eggs were afforded a higher level of care than is the case. The Better Business Bureau went on to refer the consumer fraud case to the Federal Trade Commission for potential legal action, yet the egg industry continued to use the deceptive logo on egg cartons nationwide.

In the lawsuit filed in the D.C. Superior Court, COK's co-plaintiffs—four consumers who purchased "Animal Care Certified"—labeled eggs-assert that they were under the impression they were supporting humane animal treatment given the logo's misleading language, only later to learn of the abusive conditions permitted under the "Animal Care Certified" program. Shockingly, "Animal Care Certified" producers may burn off parts of birds' beaks without anesthesia and intensively confine them in "battery cages"—wire enclosures so small, the birds can't even spread their wings—hardly representing humane care.

After COK filed the lawsuit, the United Egg Producers—not named as a defendant—filed a motion to intervene in the case. Although the Federal Trade Commission announced an end to the egg industry's deceptive logo, this case is still pending in the D.C. Superior Court as of this printing.

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