Corteva

Corteva Agriscience was separated from DowDuPont in 2019. Pioneer seeds and the crop-protection lines that came from Dow and DuPont sit in one company. That split was the remedy structure of the Dow–DuPont merger, not a new combination.

In September 2022 the FTC sued Corteva and Syngenta. The complaint says loyalty programs paid distributors to limit how much generic pesticide they bought, so brand products kept share after patents expired. Corteva has contested that reading. A complaint is not a judgment.

Seeds and chemicals are complementary. A company that sells both can design programs that reward a farm for staying inside one catalog. The FTC case is specifically about distributor rebates and generics, not about seed traits as such.

Corteva is smaller than Bayer's combined seed-and-chemical stack and larger than most independent seed companies. The competitive question is the channel: whether a distributor can stock a generic without losing the brand rebate.

The FTC loyalty case alleges rebate programs that function as exclusive dealing.

The DowDuPont spin created Corteva as a standalone seed and chemical firm.

Distributor contracts are the restraint, if the allegation is proved.

Pioneer seed share is a separate market from the pesticide rebates.

Farmers are the ones who pay brand prices if the generic is not on the distributor's shelf.

Generic manufacturers need the distributor more than they need a court press release.