MPC Hill Blast: Can Credit Card Companies Have Egg on Their Faces?
There is evidence of price-fixing pushing up egg prices, according to the Wall Street Journal. The story shows:
The Justice Department has alleged price-fixing by egg producers from 2022 to 2025.
“‘As a group we need to bid like they vote in Chicago, early and often,’ an alleged co-conspirator said, according to a federal court complaint.”
“The complaint, filed in Iowa federal court, described a yearslong effort by a handful of major egg producers to manipulate a little-known process that helps determine what Americans pay for eggs.”
“The Justice Department complaint suggested that executives used spoofing-like tactics — a bluffing strategy in which a trader places buy or sell orders hoping to move a price, but cancels many of the orders before they are filled.”
Egg prices being up isn’t news, but the price-fixing allegations are.
In all, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, egg prices rose from $2.01 a dozen in January 2014 to $2.71 in December 2025. That is a 35% price increase for eggs.
What does this have to do with credit cards?
Well, credit card companies don’t need to manipulate anything — they just centrally price-fix swipe fees on behalf of all the banks that issue their cards.
Visa tells banks what to charge here. Mastercard tells them here. Credit card companies don’t even pretend or hide it. They just fix prices for banks.
How does the big increase in egg prices compare with increases in credit card fees?
According to the Nilson Report, Visa and Mastercard credit card swipe fees alone were:
$39.13 billion in 2014 and
$118.8 billion in 2025
That’s a 204% increase
So, egg producers are being sued for their price-fixing while credit card companies openly fix prices and have increased prices by nearly six times what eggs have.
Something is wrong with this picture.
COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR EVERYONE
IT'S TIME TO PASS THE CREDIT CARD COMPETITION ACT