{"id":76571,"date":"2025-11-20T08:47:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/?p=76571"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:47:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:47:18","slug":"farmers-file-appeal-alleging-agriculture-companies-coordinated-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/farmers-file-appeal-alleging-agriculture-companies-coordinated-boycott\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers file appeal alleging agriculture companies&#8217; coordinated boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>U.S. farmers filed their appeal with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding agricultural companies\u2019 alleged boycott.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>In their filing, the plaintiffs argue the district court dismissed the multidistrict litigation under what they describe as a \u201csummary judgment standard,\u201d requiring them to \u201crule out independent business justifications\u201d at the pleading stage \u2014 a burden they say was imposed before they were permitted any discovery.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cto ensure that ecommerce Crop Inputs sales platforms could not purchase name brand Crop Inputs from an authorized retailer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Farmers make appeal to further challenge agricultural companies<\/h2>\n<p>Other allegations farmers cited in the appeal include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A Syngenta executive allegedly warned that online sellers would distribute \u201ccounterfeit products.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>CHS issued letters urging farmers to avoid online sellers, stating the platforms were \u201clining the pockets of investors and big data companies like Google.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>After an online distributor acquired a Canadian retailer in 2018, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, Corteva and Winfield \u201cabruptly cancelled their agreements\u201d with that retailer.<\/li>\n<li>Univar allegedly told customers it would end business with certain online sellers and wrote, \u201cIf anyone thinks socialism is going to feed the world just call Russia first and see how that worked out.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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 \u201cthe devil known as \u2018price transparency\u2019\u201d and warned that online competitors were \u201ccutting out the middleman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The appeal refers to a past Canadian Competition Bureau investigation involving several defendants \u2014 later closed without findings of an agreement \u2014 and the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s separate lawsuit against Corteva and Syngenta.<\/p>\n<p>As of now, the defendants have not issued a public response to the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>With yesterday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"toc-item-article-post-id-1346372--2\"><strong>Sign up<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><em>Sign up for a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/subscription.digitalcommerce360.com\/ecommerce-newsletter-subscriptions?utm_source=DC360&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=B2BArticle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"[&quot;5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd&quot;],5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\"><em>complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News<\/em><\/a><em>. It covers technology and business trends in the growing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalcommerce360.com\/b2b-ecommerce-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\">B2B ecommerce<\/a>\u00a0industry. Contact Mark Brohan, senior vice president of B2B and Market Research, at\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalcommerce360.com\/2025\/11\/19\/farmers-file-appeal-agriculture-companies\/mailto:mark@digitalcommerce360.com\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"[&quot;5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd&quot;],5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>mark@digitalcommerce360.com<\/em><\/a><em>. Follow him on Twitter @markbrohan. Follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/4403239\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\">LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DC360_Official\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\">X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DigitalCommerce360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@digitalcommerce360\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-feathr-click-track=\"true\" data-feathr-link-aids=\"5f29b0538d5a4b9c628148bd\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"simplefavorite-button\" data-postid=\"1346442\" data-siteid=\"1\" data-groupid=\"1\" data-favoritecount=\"0\" style=\"box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;color:#ffffff;\"><i class=\"sf-icon-star-empty\"\/> Favorite<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Published by Dralys Blog \u2013 Stories | Insights | Innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Discover more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dralysstore.com\" target=\"_blank\">DralysStore.com<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pld-like-dislike-wrap pld-template-2\">\r\n    <div class=\"pld-like-wrap  pld-common-wrap\">\r\n    <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\" class=\"pld-like-trigger pld-like-dislike-trigger  \" title=\"\" data-post-id=\"76571\" data-trigger-type=\"like\" data-restriction=\"no\" data-already-liked=\"0\">\r\n                        <i class=\"fas fa-heart\"><\/i>\r\n                <\/a>\r\n    <span class=\"pld-like-count-wrap pld-count-wrap\">    <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. farmers filed their appeal with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding agricultural companies\u2019&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[74,34,65,176,45,177,10],"class_list":["post-76571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dralys-insights","tag-dralys","tag-e-commerce","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ecosystem","tag-innovation","tag-smart-shopping","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AdobeStock_1501943315-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76573,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76571\/revisions\/76573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}