It has another lawsuit still underway that it filed about six years ago against the three; a judge dismissed Burnbrae from that case after Sweda’s lawyer failed to demand documents from Burnbrae.
In that case, among many allegations it claimed e-mails indicate Burnbrae and L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd. made deals that reduced competition.
The new case says the three work together to keep Sweda out of the egg-grading business and that Burnbrae and L.H. Gray and Sons, which set up Gray Ridge Eggs Inc., hold great power over the Ontario egg industry.
“Because the Burnbrae Defendants and the Gray Defendants control the vast majority of egg grading stations in Ontario, they have significant influence over and can control the price at which eggs from egg grading stations are sold to wholesalers and retail customers in Ontario,” the lawsuit says.
They also influence marketing board policies and have inside information on what the Ontario marketing board and national agency are planning and doing.
“For example, Scott Brookshaw is the executive vice president of L.H. Gray, a director of the Egg Farmers of Canada and the zone 7 director of EFO. Ian McFall is the executive vice president of Burnbrae and the zone 9 director of EFO,” the lawsuit says.
Sweda says the Ontario egg board has the necessary power to direct where farmers market their eggs, but has refused its requests, first made in 2021, to direct egg production from 200,000 hens to its egg-grading business.
The lawsuit says “from April 2021 to the current date Sweda states the Gray defendants and the Burnbrae defendants, who were and are Ontario’s largest egg producers and graders, unlawfully conspired to raise, maintain, fix, and/or stabilize prices, and reduce rebates, at which eggs were sold in Ontario to wholesale customers, retail customers and breaking stations, by eliminating Sweda as a competitor from the egg grading market.”
