As the Syngenta Viptera corn litigation continues on, the GMO company now faces 1,400 lawsuits in consolidated court proceedings. Legal experts predict that the litigation will only continue to grow worse for Syngenta, after the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (USJPML) made the decision to consolidate these similar Syngenta corn lawsuits, to speed along legal proceedings.

Each of the farmers filing suit against Syngenta allege that the company supplied them with GMO corn seeds which had not been approved to sell in China. With so many similar Syngenta corn lawsuits being continuously filed, the USJPML panel voted to consolidate the Syngenta lawsuits in order to avoid conflicting rulings from different judges, save money on legal resources, and to ultimately serve the greater convenience of the parties.

The Syngenta Viptera multidistrict litigation (MDL) initially contained approximately 550 Syngenta corn lawsuits when it formed, but after numerous cases were transferred, the total number of Viptera lawsuits reached into the thousands. This MDL is currently presided over by U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrum, who transferred 330 cases to the MDL when it formed, and 200 more cases in April 2015; currently, 870 cases are still being transferred.

Initially, plaintiffs wanted these Syngenta corn lawsuits to stay in state court and for Syngenta to face each lawsuit individually, but the severe amount of Viptera lawsuits made this option impractical. Syngenta representatives claim they sympathize with the farmers who lost a substantial portion of their income, due to the company’s Viptera corn but argue that the blame should be placed on China and not on Syngenta.

Essentially, the Syngenta argues that Viptera corn is an international trade incident rather than a domestic dispute, because the profit loss was due to China’s delayed approval of Syngenta Viptera, rather than the quality of the GMO corn seed as farmers also allege.

Overview of Syngenta Viptera Corn Litigation

Several agriculture giants and commercial corn farmers state that no federal issues are being raised in their Syngenta corn lawsuits, arguing that it was Syngenta’s fault in selling unapproved corn seed. Syngenta began selling Viptera corn to American farmers in 2011 after it was approved to sell in Brazil and Argentina that same year.

Syngenta Viptera is a MIR162 genetically modified corn strain designed to improve internal defenses against corn pests like black cutworms and corn ear-worms. While Syngenta Viptera corn was submitted for approval by Chinese regulators in 2010, China rejected it.

Beginning in late 2013, Chinese import authorities began to reject corn shipments from the United States if they contained Viptera corn.

China eventually changed its tune in December 2014 and approved Viptera corn, but it had come four to five years after Syngenta’s first submission. The delay and international shipment rejections allegedly created insurmountable damage in the American corn market, resulting in billions of profit loss for corn farmers and agriculture companies.

Before the release of Viptera corn, China had been the third largest importer of corn for the United States, buying up to 2.5 million tons per year. According to statistics in 2014, Chinese imports of American corn were severely reduced by 85%, with the annual total of 375,000 tons.

Even with the severe marketing mishap, Syngenta continues to argue that it had been China’s latent approval that caused the severe profit loss for farmers. The late approval from China furthered the company’s argument of the quality of their corn, and that the economic damages corn farmers faced was not due to their marketing campaign.

Plaintiffs feel differently, claiming they never would have purchased Viptera corn if they had known that China had not approved the corn. Even with Syngenta’s victory to have the Viptera lawsuits remanded to federal court, it does not change the fact that the company is still facing numerous allegations regarding their marketing of Viptera from American corn farmers and agriculture companies.

The Syngenta Corn MDL is In Re: Syngenta AG MIR 162 Corn Litigation, MDL No. 2591, in the U.S. District Court of Kansas.