Overview

• The lawsuit, filed in the Dortmund Regional Court, seeks over €200 million in damages for alleged overcharges on pesticide purchases.
• The farmers, represented by the legal service Unilegion, argue they paid 10–20% more than fair market prices due to the cartel's practices.
• The cartel, consisting of nine wholesalers, was fined €157 million by the German Federal Cartel Office in 2020 for price-fixing between 1998 and 2015.
• The case involves 3,200 agricultural businesses managing over 850,000 hectares of land, representing more than 5% of Germany's total farmland.
• Defendant companies, including Agravis and Baywa, dispute the claims, asserting no financial harm was caused and welcoming judicial review.