An antitrust claim has been lodged in federal court against Bayer AG, Corteva Inc., BASF Corp, Syngenta Corp., Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growmark Inc., and other crop input producers and wholesalers/retailers, alleging that these companies are violating state and federal antitrust laws through a coordinated boycott of e-commerce sales platforms like Farmers Business Network and AgVend Inc.
Attorneys for the plaintiff, a farmer’s widow who oversees his estate, have asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois to certify the case as a class action. Other companies targeted by the complaint include Cargill Inc., Winfield United, Univar Solutions, Inc., CHS Inc., Tenkoz Inc., Federated Co-operatives Ltd., and the J.R. Simplot Co. subsidiary Pinnacle Agriculture.
A BASF spokesperson told Bloomberg Law in a Jan. 11 statement that the company “strongly disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit, and intends to defend itself vigorously.” A Nutrien spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company denies “all allegations of wrongdoing” but declined to comment further on “the potential litigation.”