Announced Sept. 28, 2026, Corteva has settled the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit accusing it of using distributor loyalty programs to keep lower-priced generic pesticides out of the market. The settlement runs for 10 years and includes a $35 million payment to the 12 states that joined the case.
In a statement provided by Corteva, the company responded: “We’re pleased to reach a resolution in the FTC 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.”
The FTC announced the stipulated order almost exactly four years after it filed the case. The Commission voted 2-0 to approve the order, and it was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
“This settlement will do away with unfair corporate practices that have hurt farmers by impeding the sales of lower-priced products,” said David Shaw, principal deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition in the FTC news release.
What the order prohibits
For the next decade, Corteva cannot:
- Tie payments to distributors to buying more than 50% of a given active ingredient from Corteva
- Run share-based programs that cap distributors’ generic purchases below 50%
- Use volume-based loyalty programs to recreate those share-based terms
- Discriminate against customers that do business with competitors or generic makers
The order covers all of Corteva’s post-patent active ingredients, not just the three named in the original complaint.
How the case started
The FTC and 10 states sued Corteva and Syngenta on Sept. 29, 2022. They accused the two crop protection companies of running what the agency called an illegal “pay-to-block” scheme.
According to the complaint, both ran loyalty programs that paid distributors only if the distributors kept their purchases of competing generic pesticides below a very low threshold. Regulators said this kept generic makers from reaching farmers after the companies’ patents expired. That let Corteva and Syngenta keep charging monopoly-level prices, and they shared part of those profits with the distributors.
“The FTC is suing to stop Syngenta and Corteva from maintaining their monopolies through harmful tactics that have jacked up pesticide prices for farmers,” then-FTC Chair Lina Khan said when the suit was filed.
For Corteva, the complaint named three active ingredients:
- Rimsulfuron, a herbicide (Matrix, Resolve Q, Basis and Basis Blend (with thifensulfuron), Steadfast Q (with nicosulfuron), Realm Q (with mesotrione))
- Oxamyl, an insecticide and nematicide (Vydate L, Vydate C-LV)
- Acetochlor, a herbicide (Surpass NXT, Keystone NXT (with atrazine), Resicore and Resicore XL (with mesotrione and clopyralid))
It alleged Corteva held monopoly power in rimsulfuron and oxamyl and market power in acetochlor.
For Syngenta, it named:
- Azoxystrobin, a fungicide (Quadris, Heritage, Trivapro, Miravis Neo)
- Mesotrione, a herbicide (Callisto, Lumax EZ, Acuron)
- Metolachlor/S-metolachlor, a herbicide (Dual II Magnum, plus premixes that contain Dual)
The legal claims included unfair methods of competition, unreasonable restraint of trade, unlawful monopoly maintenance, and violations of state competition and consumer protection laws.
The original state plaintiffs were California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin. Tennessee and Washington joined later, bringing the total to 12.
A second major settlement
Corteva first disclosed its settlement with the FTC in July. At the time, the company said it was “pleased to reach a resolution in this matter, pending court approval.”
In June, Corteva agreed to pay $85 million to settle a related farmer class action in the same court. That deal covers U.S. buyers of products containing acetochlor, rimsulfuron, oxamyl and methoxyfenozide from October 2018 through May 2026. The class is expected to include more than 100,000 farmers. The farmers’ attorneys said the $85 million is about 10% of the damages their expert calculated, and the settlement is still awaiting final court approval.
The settlement comes days before Corteva spins off its seed and genetics business as a separate public company, Vylor, which is set to begin trading on the NYSE Oct. 1 under the ticker VYLR. Corteva will keep its crop protection business, the part of the company covered by the FTC order.
Syngenta case continues
The FTC’s case against Syngenta is still in litigation, and so is the farmer class action against Syngenta and other defendants.
