LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Corteva, Inc. has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and 12 states in a lawsuit alleging the company paid distributors to block competitors from selling less expensive generic pesticide products to farmers.
The FTC and attorneys general in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin filed a class-action lawsuit Sept. 29, 2022, also leveling the allegations at Syngenta Crop Protection.
Corteva this week filed a motion to stay the case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, telling the court it was set to resolve the case.
"The parties to this litigation have been engaged in extensive, good-faith settlement negotiations over a period of several months," Corteva's legal counsel said in a declaration with the court.
"As a result of these negotiations, the parties have reached agreement in principle on the material terms of a proposed consent decree that would resolve the claims in this action."
A proposed consent decree is expected to be filed by Sept. 25, 2026, according to court documents. A hearing on several court motions in the case is slated for July 30, 2026.
In June 2026, Corteva also settled a similar lawsuit filed by a group of farmers in the same court.
The ongoing lawsuit alleges that crop inputs distributors only get paid if they limit business with competing manufacturers. Such arrangements, the lawsuit said, are "cutting off" competition and allowing the companies to "inflate their prices and force American farmers to spend millions of dollars more for their products."
When contacted by DTN, a spokesperson for Corteva offered the following statement: "We're pleased to reach a resolution in this matter, pending court approval, and continue to focus on our business, our customers and our work: delivering groundbreaking innovation and agronomic support to retailers and farmers around the world."
DTN also reached out to Syngenta for comment.
Syngenta and Corteva are two of the largest pesticide manufacturers operating in the United States. Syngenta, based in Switzerland, is a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned company. Corteva, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the company formed as part of a merger between DuPont and Dow Chemical Co.
The complaint alleges Syngenta and Corteva take "illegal" steps to stop generic pesticides from eating into their profits. The loyalty programs include making payments to distributors if the distributors keep their purchases of competing generic pesticides beneath a certain threshold.
When a company creates a new pesticide, the FTC said, it can patent the invention and prevent others from selling the pesticide for 20 years.
"Ordinarily, when the patent expires, generic versions of the product enter the market to compete with the original brand-name version," the FTC said in its original complaint.
"The arrival of generics pushes prices down. Instead of one company wielding a monopoly over a new product, many manufacturers can compete for farmers' business."
The complaint targets six crop-protection active ingredients.
It claims that Syngenta has monopoly and market power in the United States with respect to azoxystrobin, a fungicide; and mesotrione and metolachlor, both herbicides.
In addition, the complaint alleges Corteva has monopoly and market power in the United States on the herbicide rimsulfuron and the insecticide and nematicide oxamyl. Corteva also has market power with respect to the herbicide acetochlor.
The complaint also alleges the companies violated state-competition and consumer protection laws in California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin.
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