Lawsuit is ‘frivolous, false and unfounded’

United Egg Producers (UEP), a trade association representing most US egg farmers, and ISE America, one of UEP’s member companies, say they have completed an investigation into the allegations made by COK last week regarding potential consumer fraud over use of a misleading logo.

The organisations have concluded that there is no basis for consumer deception and called COK’s actions “simply a publicity stunt to promote its own vegan political viewpoint,” said Gene Gregory, president of UEP, adding “Unfortunately, COK’s actions will come at the expense of taxpayers who will have to pay the costs associated to adjudicate this matter, and clog an already overcrowded judicial system.”

“Neither ISE nor UEP have even been legally served with a notice of this lawsuit,” Gregory added. “COK chose to announce it to the news media first, which just shows that their real intent is simply publicity for themselves.”

Gregory said that UEP received approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to change the industry’s animal welfare logo to “United Egg Producers Certified” on new egg cartons manufactured on or after November 30, 2005. ISE America changed its egg carton labels in November 2005 replacing the old Animal Care Certified logo with the United Egg Producers Certified logo. The UEP Certified logo indicates that the eggs are produced under strict scientific animal husbandry guidelines and subject to independent third-party inspection.

The ISE egg cartons that are being challenged carry the UEP Certified logo on the outside top of the egg carton which is most visible to consumers. The UEP Certified logo includes a website (www.uepcertified.com) which consumers can visit to see a complete description of the guidelines and other information about egg production methods.

According to the UEP, one of the ISE brand labels, representing about 1.25% of all the eggs sold at the farm, carried both the UEP Certified logo on the outside top of the egg carton and the old Animal Care Certified logo and old website on the inside of the egg carton lid beginning in 2007. This occurred as the result of a label printing error by a label supplier.

The UEP additionally stated that the label supplier has admitted that it inadvertently and without the knowledge of ISE used an outdated printing plate and is correcting its printing plates. ISE has already removed the cartons that carry the dual logos from the marketplace and replacing them with cartons that only carry the UEP Certified logo.