that EU legislation was passed in early 2007, before this campaign started. Sainsbury's were the first to stop selling battery eggs as a result of the 2012 EU legislation (april 2007). they did that by choice, not to help chickens but to gain a competitive advantage. everyone will be forced to follow them, few will wait until the deadline in 2012 because it isnt good for business. no one is making decisions based on chicken welfare, it is all about business.
however Marks and Spencer took battery eggs off the shelves nearly five years ago during the last big egg campaign, and its ban includes the eggs used in all its other products. Waitrose has had a free-range policy on its whole eggs since 2001. no one else bothered back then because it was forgotten about within weeks. the same will happen this time. it always does.
back in 1991 there was the first big EU egg row of my generation. as a result Switzerland banned battery cages. no one else took notice that i am aware of. loads of consumers switched to barn eggs or free range eggs, that was the real change, and that change has continued all these years later, but more than half of consumers still buy battery eggs and i cant see them changing because they arent sensitive to the campaign. threads like this demonstrate that we are still in a situaiton where more than half of consumers really dont care and choose the cheapest egg.