LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Farmers who paid for Corteva Inc. crop production products that contain one of four active ingredients between Oct. 27, 2018, and May 27, 2026, will be eligible for funds after a federal judge granted preliminary approval of a national settlement in an ongoing crop loyalty programs class-action lawsuit filed by farmers across the country.

A large group of farmers sued Corteva along with CHS Inc., Nutrien, BASF, Syngenta and others beginning in 2022, alleging the farmers suffered financial losses from the companies paying distributors to block competitors from selling less-expensive generic crop protection products.

Under the preliminary approval by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, the settlement covers purchasers of products containing acetochlor, rimsulfuron, oxamyl and methoxyfenozide.

What has yet to be released is the dollar amount of the settlement, how much individual famers may receive and how the money will be allocated among class members.

The order issued by the court also stays the case while the settlement process continues and appoints class representatives and class counsel. The plaintiffs will be required to submit a plan for allocating funds and notice will need to be sent to class members, according to the order. The court said it was likely to grant final approval of the settlement.

In addition, the court will need to conduct a final fairness hearing on the settlement.

"The court preliminarily finds that the settlement agreement was entered into at arm's length by experienced counsel and is sufficiently within the range of reasonableness, fairness, and adequacy so that an appropriate notice of the settlement agreement should be given," the court said in the order.

According to the order, a settlement fund has been created and held in escrow and that class counsel will later seek attorney's fees and expenses.

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. Attorneys general in Tennessee and Washington later joined the case.

The FTC and the states have alleged in their lawsuit that 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."

Corteva reached a settlement in the FTC case earlier this year and agreed to pay $35 million and to end its crop loyalty programs.

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.

In October 2026, the court denied Syngenta's motion for summary judgement in the case.

At the end of May 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had reached an agreement with Bayer CropScience in the FTC lawsuit.

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.

In a September 2022 news release, the FTC and the state attorneys general said, "Cutting off competition has allowed the defendants to inflate their prices and force American farmers to spend millions of dollars more for their products."

In January 2023, Syngenta and Corteva filed separate motions asking the court in North Carolina to dismiss the lawsuit. Both companies defended the use of loyalty programs.

The companies said in those motions that loyalty programs are legal.

Read more on DTN:

"Syngenta Loses Bid to End Loyalty Case," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

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

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