Farmers file second price-fixing class action against Mosaic, Nutrien, CF Industries, Koch and Yara

Both class-action lawsuits name Mosaic, Nutrien, CF Industries, Koch Fertilizer and Yara. Together these five companies account for a large share of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer production and sales in North America and globally. The DOJ investigation covers the same group of companies.

The plaintiffs allege the companies conspired to coordinate production discipline — deliberately restraining output or avoiding capacity expansion — to keep fertilizer prices artificially elevated above competitive levels. They point to public statements about market management and the degree to which prices moved in lockstep across producers as evidence of coordination, rather than independent commercial decisions responding to the same market conditions.

The DOJ probe is a criminal antitrust investigation, which carries far more serious consequences than the civil class-action suits. Criminal antitrust violations in the U.S. can result in corporate fines, individual prosecution of executives and potential prison sentences. No charges have been filed as of the time of this report, and the investigation remains in the evidence-gathering phase.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages on behalf of farmers and agricultural businesses that purchased fertilizer at allegedly inflated prices from 2021 onward. In antitrust class actions, successful plaintiffs are typically entitled to recover treble (triple) damages — three times their actual losses — plus attorney fees. Given the scale of U.S. fertilizer purchases and the size of the price run-up, potential damages could be substantial, though the litigation is at an early stage and no damages figure has been established.

The named companies have not publicly commented on the second class-action filing. In connection with the DOJ investigation and the first lawsuit, all deny wrongdoing. The companies’ standard defense is that price increases from 2021 through 2022 reflected genuine supply-side disruptions — the Russian invasion of Ukraine, natural gas price spikes affecting ammonia production costs and raw material shortages — rather than anticompetitive coordination.