Bayer Faces August Hearing on $7.25 Billion Roundup Settlement

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A Missouri state court on Tuesday set an August 19 hearing date to review Bayer's $7.25 billion proposed settlement of lawsuits alleging that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. This is a delay from an earlier July hearing. Bayer's Monsanto unit said in a statement that the six-week delay in state court would not materially impact the settlement approval process.

The Supreme Court recently handed Bayer a major legal victory, issuing a ruling that scaled back thousands of claims that Roundup's warning label failed to properly warn consumers about the cancer risk associated with the weedkiller. The ruling also remanded several other Roundup-related cases to lower courts for reconsideration in light of its decision.

Failure-to-warn claims were part of most Roundup lawsuits and are generally considered easier to prove than other legal theories. Plaintiffs' lawyers argue that they can still win cases based on other legal theories that were not addressed by the court.

Bayer has previously said the settlement is supported by most of the people who had sued over Roundup claims. However, dozens of people have objected to the settlement, saying that the deal is unfair to cancer victims and future claimants.

The proposed settlement does not resolve about 4,000 Roundup cases consolidated in federal court. The judge overseeing those cases, who has previously criticised the proposed settlement, scheduled a July 7 status conference to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on the pending federal court cases.

Bayer faces approximately 65,000 claims in U.S. state and federal courts from plaintiffs who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other forms of cancer after using Roundup at home or on the job. Bayer has said that decades of studies have shown that Roundup's key ingredient, glyphosate, is safe and does not cause cancer.

The settlement proposal, announced in February, aims to resolve most of the remaining lawsuits as well as potential lawsuits from people who already have been exposed to Roundup and develop cancer in the future.

Bayer acquired Roundup when it purchased Monsanto in 2018. The High Court's ruling brought one trial to an abrupt end on Friday, when a different Missouri state court judge declared a mistrial because the case included arguments and evidence tied to failure-to-warn claims that the Supreme Court had ruled were preempted.

The Supreme Court's ruling is a significant victory for Bayer. 'We are pleased that the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the safety and efficacy of Roundup,' a spokesperson for the company said.

And finally,

Bayer's Monsanto unit has said that decades of studies have shown that Roundup's key ingredient, glyphosate, is safe and does not cause cancer. The High Court's ruling brought one trial to an abrupt end on Friday, when a different Missouri state court judge declared a mistrial because the case included arguments and evidence tied to failure-to-warn claims that the Supreme Court had ruled were preempted.