Prices that are too high?: Peasants sue plant protection dealers on millions

A group of large-scale crops must face claims for damages from 3,200 farmers. A lawsuit had been filed with the Dortmund district court and requested more than 200 million euros, said a lawsuit company called Unilegion, which leads the procedure in a kind of class action lawsuit on behalf of the farmers. According to the Dortmund Regional Court, damage of 217 million euros will be claimed for the lawsuit.

According to the Federal Cartel Office, the cartel of nine trading companies has agreed for years, this dealt with the period 1998 to 2015. From the perspective of the Unilegion’s lawsuit, the farmers paid too high prices because of the cartel, now they want money back.

Plant protection is an important product in agricultural trade. Conventional farmers protect themselves from crop failures that would threaten pests or plant diseases without the use of chemistry.

Smoked company sees no damage to farmers

Companies include wholesalers Baywa from Munich and Agravis from Münster (NRW). Agravis announced that it was not about binding prices – the actual sales prices would always be negotiated individually between buyers and the seller. There was no damage to the plaintiffs. One welcomes the upcoming judicial clarification. Baywa did not want to comment on the allegations on request.

Farmers from all over Germany have joined the lawsuit in front of the Dortmund district court – some have large companies, others only small. The claims for damages per company range from a few thousand euros to more than one million euros.

According to the information, the farmers said an extension area of ​​around 850,000 hectares and thus more than five percent of the area area throughout Germany. The farmers from all regions of Germany unite that they regularly bought pesticides for their companies.

The farmers who were exposed to high economic pressure would have paid too much, says Katharina Fröhlich from the management of Unilegion. “It is time to get this money back.” Your company received a total of 600,000 invoices from the farmers for plant protection products. A consulting company then created an expert opinion on the amount of the compensation.

Tricky question about the cartel consequences for the price

In such procedures, the defendants usually question the applicant’s reports and present their own report, which comes to completely different conclusions. It has been proven that the cartel existed. However, the Federal Cartel Office does not determine what consequences the cartel had for the prices – the plaintiff must answer this question convincingly in the legal proceedings. This requires the elaborate reports, on which the opposite side of the opposite side is followed. Sometimes there are real “expert opinion battles” in court.

There are statistical analyzes that, according to which the prices are usually significantly increased by cartels. However, the plaintiffs have to prove a price increase in concrete terms and related to their case. That is a difficult thing.

The legal dispute at the crop protection prices should take a long time. According to the Dortmund Regional Court, “due to the scope and complexity of the matter”, comment temists will continue to be made to the application by the scope and complexity of the matter. Agravis pointed out that some comparable procedures took more than ten years. “After the first instance decision, the district court of Dortmund is possible.”