Attorney General Ellison wins protections from Corteva to lower pesticide prices for farmers

Settles 2022 bipartisan lawsuit that alleged Corteva implemented an anti-competitive post-patent loyalty program that paid distributors to block competitors from selling cheaper generic products to farmers, driving up farmers’ costs

Corteva to end existing pesticides loyalty program, enter into 10 years of compliance oversight, pay Minnesota $1.25 million

Marks AG Ellison’s fourth agriculture-related antitrust settlement in last five months that will lower costs for farmers and consumers

September 28, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) —  Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, along with the Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan coalition of 12 state attorneys general, has secured a significant proposed settlement with pesticide-manufacturing giant Corteva Inc. that will lead to lower pesticide prices for farmers.

Under the terms of the settlement, Corteva will end its existing pesticides loyalty program, which has limited distributors’ ability to do business with generic competitors that seek to enter the market after Corteva patents have expired. The settlement agreement will provide relief to farmers who have long endured high pesticide prices by ensuring greater access to lower-cost generic pesticide products.  

In addition, the stipulated order requires Corteva to pay the bipartisan state plaintiffs $35 million to resolve their monetary claims, including $1.25 million to Minnesota. In addition to Minnesota, the state plaintiffs are California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. 

For a period of 10 years, the proposed order will prohibit Corteva from conditioning payments or other benefits to a distributor on that firm purchasing a high share of a given pesticide active ingredient from Corteva or similarly limiting its purchases of generic equivalents. 

The settlement reached with Corteva resolves a lawsuit Attorney General Ellison, the FTC, and the bipartisan coalition of attorneys general brought in September 2022, which alleges that Corteva implemented a post-patent loyalty program that paid distributors to block competitors from selling its cheaper generic products to farmers. According to the complaint, this conduct allowed Corteva to maintain elevated prices, forcing American farmers to spend millions of dollars more for essential crop protection products. The complaint makes similar allegations as to Syngenta — another pesticide-manufacturing giant — and its post-patent loyalty program.  

The settlement announced today resolves only the claims against Corteva. Litigation against Syngenta remains ongoing.  

“This is another example of illegal antitrust practices that have gone on for far too long that have been stifling our economy and prosperity while enriching multinational corporations and billionaires. This agreement with Corteva will help lower farmers’ costs and begin to restore fairness to the pesticides market,” Attorney General Ellison said.  “I took on this investigation and lawsuit because unrigging our economy so the rest of us can afford our lives has been and will continue to be my top priority. We’ve secured more strong wins this year that help bring costs for both farmers and consumers, but there’s more to do and we’re going to do it.”    

2022 antitrust lawsuit against Corteva and Syngenta

The September 2022 lawsuit that Attorney General Ellison, the FTC, and the bipartisan state coalition filed against Corteva and Syngenta alleges that each company’s loyalty program provides end-of-year payments to distributors that purchase from Corteva all or nearly all of their annual requirements of pesticides containing certain active ingredients, which meant they purchased very little of competing generic pesticides. 

Ordinarily, lower-priced generic competitors should be able to enter the market and drive down prices once the relevant patent and regulatory exclusivity periods have expired. The complaint alleges that the challenged loyalty programs illegally extend Syngenta’s and Corteva’s monopolies by excluding lower-priced generic competitors from an essential distribution channel. As a result, according to the complaint, farmers were forced to overpay for crop protection products.  

Today’s settlement with Corteva

The proposed settlement agreement that Attorney General Ellison, the FTC, and the bipartisan coalition of attorneys general reached will end Corteva’s alleged exclusionary conduct that has raised pesticide prices for Minnesota farmers.  

The proposed settlement agreement prohibits Corteva, for 10 years, from:  

• Implementing loyalty programs that condition payments to a Corteva distributor customer on the customer purchasing a greater-than-50% share of its requirements of a given pesticide active ingredient from Corteva.
• Implementing share-based programs that limit the share of a generic product that a distributor customer may purchase to under 50% (or the volume equivalent). 
• Implementing a volume-based loyalty program for the purpose of replicating or reintroducing a prohibited share-based loyalty program. 
• Implementing other, specified conditions that enhanced the exclusionary effect of Corteva’s prohibited loyalty program on generic competitors. 
• Discriminating against or threatening customers because they refuse to agree to prohibited exclusive or loyalty terms, or because they conduct business with Corteva’s competitors, including generic manufacturers.

The proposed order applies to all Corteva’s post-patent active ingredients, extending beyond the three exemplar active ingredients named in the FTC and states’ complaint.  

Attorney General Ellison’s other recent antitrust wins in agriculture that will lower costs for farmers and consumers

Today’s settlement with Corteva marks the fourth antitrust settlement Attorney General Ellison has reached in less than five months that will help lower costs for both farmers and consumers.

John Deere blocking farmers’ right to repair, raising repair costs

• On July 8, 2026, Attorney General Ellison and four other states working with the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement that resolves his January 2025 antitrust lawsuit against Deere & Company over its use of unfair practices that have driven up equipment repair costs for farmers while also depriving farmers of the ability to make timely repairs on critical farming equipment, including tractors. The settlement requires Deere to make its current and future repair resources — most of which until now, it has provided only to authorized Deere dealers — available to farmers and independent repair providers (“IRPs”) for a period of 10 years. The settlement also requires Deere to instruct its authorized dealers to promote and support current and future repair resources and not to discriminate or retaliate against any farmers or IRPs who use or purchase them; provide notices to farmer and IRP customers, authorized dealers, and the public about settlement and the availability of Deere’s repair resources, and how to contact and submit a complaint to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office; submit compliance reports to Minnesota, the other plaintiff states, and the FTC every 60 days until it completes the initial rollout of repair resources, and annually thereafter; and pay $1 million total to Minnesota and the other plaintiff states for their legal costs and fees. The settlement may be extended beyond 10 years if Deere violates any of its terms. 

Illegal coordination over egg prices

• On July 1, 2026, Attorney General Ellison with a bipartisan coalition of states working with the United States Department of Justice announced a settlement of an investigation into the nation’s largest egg producers that revealed an illegal scheme that raised costs for consumers and businesses securing more than 50 million eggs for consumers and $3.3 million.  A bipartisan multistate investigation with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed evidence that Cal-Maine Foods (Cal-Maine), Versova/Centrum (Versova), and Hickman’s Egg Ranch (Hickman’s) illegally coordinated for years to influence a daily price index for eggs, which artificially increased prices for retailers and consumers throughout the country. Of the 53 million eggs obtained through the settlement, roughly 2 million eggs will be delivered directly to food banks and community organizations serving Minnesotans. 

AgriStats sharing anticompetitive information exchanges among meat processors that raised consumers’ prices

• On May 7, 2026, Attorney General Ellison led a bipartisan coalition of states working with the United States Department of Justice in resolving the civil antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats, Inc. for organizing and sharing anticompetitive information exchanges among meat processors. For years, Agri Stats had produced comprehensive weekly and monthly reports for participating meat processors that spanned hundreds of pages and contained recent data relating to sales prices, costs, including worker and farmer compensation, and output. By sharing meat processors’ most granular cost, production, sales, and pricing data across the vast majority of processors in America, Agri Stats allowed these companies to collude with one another to thwart the free market and establish a de-facto scheme that raised costs on consumers across America. The settlement that Attorney General Ellison and the other plaintiffs reached bars Agri Stats from sharing such information in the future. 

Attorney General Ellison encourages Minnesota consumers and businesses who wish to report concerns about antitrust business practices to submit a report online via the Antitrust Report Form or call the Attorney General’s Office at (651) 296-3353 (Metro area), (800) 657-3787 (Greater Minnesota), or (800) 627-3529 (Minnesota Relay).