Syngenta GMO Corn Litigation Culminates in $1.5B Settlement

The massive litigation over Syngenta genetically modified corn has resulted in a $1.5 billion settlement resolving all but a few plaintiffs’ claims.

Plaintiffs submitted the proposed settlement for court approval on Monday. The settlement would resolve claims brought by four subclasses of corn producers, grain handling facilities and ethanol production facilities who allege they suffered massive business losses after defendant Syngenta AG prematurely released new varieties of genetically modified corn onto the market.

The settlement covers all but four specific Syngenta class action lawsuits. Under terms of the Syngenta class action settlement, Syngenta agrees to pay a total of $1.51 billion, with the first payment of $200 million due by March 28. All of the settlement fund will be used to cover payments to Class Members and costs associated with the litigation; no funds will revert to Syngenta.

The massive Syngenta GMO corn litigation began over Syngenta’s release of its then-new Agrisure Viptera variety of genetically modified corn in 2009.

At the time of that release, Chinese government officials had not yet approved Viptera corn for import into China. In 2013, an inspection of a shipment of corn that had arrived in China revealed it contained some of the as-yet unapproved Viptera corn.

Chinese officials responded by rejecting all shipments of corn from the U.S., cutting off the entire corn industry from the enormous Chinese market. Plaintiffs blame this rejection on a significant drop in the price of corn around the same time.

Syngenta then became the litigation target of practically the entire corn industry. Thousands of plaintiffs, from individual small farmers to food producers to gigantic transnational agribusinesses filed claims against Syngenta that were eventually consolidated into a single multidistrict litigation in a Kansas federal court.

In its defense, Syngenta claims the price of corn was already on the way down before the Chinese government barred U.S. imports. Syngenta also blamed agricultural giants Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland for shipping mixed corn to China, ostensibly in a hurry to take advantage of what were at the time unusually high prices.

The proposed settlement Class would cover “[a]ny Person in the United States that during the Class Period owned any Interest in Corn in the United States priced for sale during the Class Period” and also qualifies as a member of one of the four subclasses covering producers who both did and did not purchase Duracade or Viptera corn or corn seed, grain handling facilities, and ethanol production facilities.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

If appointed by the court as proposed in the motion for preliminary approval, counsel for the plaintiff Class and subclasses will be Christopher A. Seeger of Seeger Weiss LLP, Daniel E. Gustafson of Gustafson Gluek PLLC, Patrick J. Stueve of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP, Lynn R. Johnson of Shamberg Johnson & Bergman, Kenneth A. Wexler of Wexler Wallace LLP, and James E. Cecchi of Carell Byrne Cecchi Olstein Brody & Agnello PC.

The Syngenta GMO Corn Consolidated Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Syngenta AG MIR162 Corn Litigation, Master File No. 2:14-md-02591-JWL-JPO, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

UPDATE: May 2018, the $1.5 billion Syngenta corn seed class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.