Major seed company Bayer is no longer requiring independent seed companies seeking discounts through its loyalty program to meet sales targets, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Bayer has dropped requirements that independent seed companies meet sales targets for both corn and soybean seeds to achieve discounts through its "Premier Performance Program," according to a press release from DOJ's Antitrust Division.
This "contractual restraint raised concerns that Bayer was anticompetitively tying corn seed and soybean seed," the release said.
Bayer dropped the tie between corn and soybean seed for the 2025 planting year and "has now committed to not reinstate the tie for seven years," the release said.
Additionally, Bayer has also eliminated incentives "that could limit independent seed companies' willingness to license technology from Bayer's competitors," according to the release.
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The changes were made during the course of a DOJ investigation into "exclusionary conduct in corn and soybean seed markets," DOJ said.
“Loyalty programs that discourage customers from switching to alternative sellers pose a danger to competition,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Sarrine of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said in the release. “We are pleased that Bayer has taken these actions addressing competitive concerns of the Division about Bayer’s loyalty program.”
In a statement, Bayer said its U.S. seed licensing business "has long offered the Premier Performance Program to its corn and soybean licensees. The program offers licensees the opportunity to earn financial incentives for selling and promoting products licensed from Bayer.
"In 2025, Bayer decoupled the corn seed and soybean seed incentive and in late February of this year, Bayer communicated to licensees that it is eliminating the 'Performance Incentive' element of the program for fiscal year 2027. Bayer made these business decisions based on its belief that these changes made sense for its licensing business and for licensees. We can confirm that we have committed to the DOJ not to reinstate these program conditions for a period of seven years."
The government has an active case against Corteva and Syngenta over their loyalty programs. The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint in 2022, during the Biden administration, alleging the companies used loyalty programs “to block and restrict generic competition from pesticide markets, leaving farmers to pay elevated prices for crop protection.”
That case has been in mediation since 2024. The states that joined the suit include California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
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