Justice Department Eyes Monsanto

The St. Louis Business Journal reports: The U.S. Justice Department is looking into whether Monsanto Co. violated antitrust laws, the company said Thursday.

The department has informally questioned Monsanto about its marketing tactics in the biotech seed industry, but the company has not received a subpoena or formal notice of investigation, spokesman Lee Quarles said.

Monsanto has provided interviews and documents to the Justice Department over the past two months about its marketing tactics and other allegations DuPont raised in its lawsuit in June against Monsanto, Quarles said.

He said Monsanto has done nothing illegal. "We don't believe there is any merit in the allegations," he said. "We look forward to settling those matters in the court of law."

Quarles said the nature of the Justice Department's questions are similar to ones Monsanto received from the department leading up to its $1.5 billion acquisition of Mississippi-based Delta & Pine Land in 2007, a deal DuPont actively tried to block.

In August, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced an investigation of competitive practices in agriculture, including the seed industry.

In addition to Monsanto, the Justice Department also has contacted two of Monsanto’s competitors: Delaware-based DuPont and Swiss biotech firm Syngenta.

DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said the company has been contacted by the Justice Department and that the company is cooperating with the investigation.

In May, Monsanto sued DuPont to prevent what it called “unlawful use” of Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant technologies in soybeans and corn.

DuPont countersued in June, arguing that combining its technologies with Monsanto’s was within its rights under the license agreement with Monsanto.

Then the years-long rivalry ratcheted up in August when Monsanto called for a probe into what it described as DuPont’s “deceitful” attacks on Monsanto’s business practices. Monsanto Chairman and Chief Executive Hugh Grant demanded that DuPont Chairman Charles Holliday Jr. appoint a committee to investigate the alleged attacks.

Monsanto accused DuPont of writing forged letters to Congress, spreading misinformation, trying to improperly influence public officials and hiring “masked third parties, such as Weber Merritt.”

Weber Merritt, a Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm, promoted a conference held in August in St. Louis by the Organization for Competitive Markets, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based group that criticizes Monsanto and is financed by DuPont.

Creve Coeur, Missouri-based Monsanto makes seeds and insect- and herbicide-resistant crops. It is one of the largest employers in St. Louis with 4,000 local employees.