LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Corteva Agriscience LLC agreed to an $85 million settlement in an ongoing crop loyalty program class-action lawsuit filed by farmers across the country, according to a preliminary motion for settlement filed by the plaintiffs with a federal court on Wednesday.

Corteva has agreed to deposit the funds in an escrow account within 14 days of filing the motion, or no later than June 24, 2026, according to the motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

The funds will be made available to U.S. farmers and others who purchased specific crop protection products from October 2018 through May 2026. As part of the agreement, Corteva is expected to help the plaintiffs identify a settlement class that could exceed 100,000 farmers.

"Even though the case will continue against Syngenta, continuing to litigate against Corteva would have required significant additional resources and materially increased the complexity of the case, particularly at trial," the plaintiffs said in their motion.

"To obtain a jury verdict against Corteva, MDL (multi-district litigation) plaintiffs would need to successfully certify at least one litigation class for their claims against Corteva, brief summary judgment motions concerning Corteva and prove Corteva's liability and the resulting damages at trial based on a loyalty program that is entirely separate and distinct from the Syngenta loyalty program."

The proposed settlement would account for about 10% of the total damages that the plaintiffs' expert calculated were "caused by Corteva."

The Corteva crop protection products in question are those containing the herbicides and insecticides acetochlor, rimsulfuron, oxamyl and methoxyfenozide.

The patents on these active ingredients had expired, meaning generic competitors were legally entitled to produce and sell them. The plaintiffs alleged that Corteva's loyalty rebate programs with distributors effectively blocked less-expensive generics from reaching the market.

When contacted by DTN, Corteva provided the following statement: "We are pleased to resolve this matter 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."

Beginning in 2022, a large group of farmers sued Corteva, CHS Inc., Nutrien, BASF, Syngenta, and other companies. The farmers alleged they suffered financial losses because the companies paid distributors to prevent competitors from selling lower-cost generic crop protection products. Corteva took part in mediation conferences on March 10, 2026, and May 14, 2026, according to the report of a mediator filed with the court on May 29, 2026.

Farmers started lining up to cash in after the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin filed a separate lawsuit in September 2022, alleging the companies violated the Sherman Act and its antimonopoly provisions.

Companies have also been taking part in mediation conferences in the FTC lawsuit, according to court documents filed in the same district court.

In another lawsuit filed in the same court by the FTC and several states, they alleged distributors only get paid if they limit business with competing manufacturers. Such arrangements, the complaint 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."

In particular, the FTC lawsuit alleged, Syngenta has a monopoly and market power on the fungicide azoxystrobin and the herbicides mesotrione and metolachlor. The suit cites Corteva's herbicides rimsulfuron and acetochlor and the insecticide and nematicide oxamyl.

At the end of May 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had reached an agreement with Bayer CropScience. The DOJ said in a news release that the company agreed to remove "potentially anticompetitive provisions" from its seed loyalty program. Bayer is not part of the FTC and farmer antitrust lawsuits.

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, is the company formed as part of a merger between DuPont and Dow Chemical Company.

Read more on DTN:

"Corteva to Settle Crop Loyalty Case," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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