U.S. farmers filed their appeal with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding agricultural companies’ alleged boycott.
The appeal, which they filed Nov. 18, seeks to revive antitrust allegations that major crop input manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers coordinated a boycott to block online sellers of seed and crop protection products.
In their filing, the plaintiffs argue the district court dismissed the multidistrict litigation under what they describe as a “summary judgment standard,” requiring them to “rule out independent business justifications” at the pleading stage — a burden they say was imposed before they were permitted any discovery.
The farmers claim the defendants acted collectively to limit online competition as ecommerce platforms began offering more transparent pricing. The filing alleges that manufacturers including Bayer, BASF, Corteva and Syngenta used retailer audits “to ensure that ecommerce Crop Inputs sales platforms could not purchase name brand Crop Inputs from an authorized retailer.”
Farmers make appeal to further challenge agricultural companies
Other allegations farmers cited in the appeal include:
- A Syngenta executive allegedly warned that online sellers would distribute “counterfeit products.”
- CHS issued letters urging farmers to avoid online sellers, stating the platforms were “lining the pockets of investors and big data companies like Google.”
- After an online distributor acquired a Canadian retailer in 2018, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, Corteva and Winfield “abruptly cancelled their agreements” with that retailer.
- Univar allegedly told customers it would end business with certain online sellers and wrote, “If anyone thinks socialism is going to feed the world just call Russia first and see how that worked out.”
The brief says CropLife America and the Agricultural Retailers Association helped communicate and reinforce the alleged boycott. CropLife, according to the filing, referred to transparent pricing as “the devil known as ‘price transparency’” and warned that online competitors were “cutting out the middleman.”
The appeal refers to a past Canadian Competition Bureau investigation involving several defendants — later closed without findings of an agreement — and the Federal Trade Commission’s separate lawsuit against Corteva and Syngenta.
As of now, the defendants have not issued a public response to the appeal.
With yesterday’s filing, the farmers formally set the appellate process in motion. The Eighth Circuit will determine whether the complaint alleges a coordinated refusal to deal with. A reversal would return the case to the Eastern District of Missouri for discovery and further proceedings.
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