Appeals Court Upholds $611 Million Judgment In Roundup Product Liability Suit

The Western District Court of Appeals recently upheld a $611 million judgment against the German chemical giant Bayer over allegations that its Roundup herbicide product causes cancer. The decision is among the reasons why Bayer is considering dropping the product entirely. Bayer acquired Roundup after a merger with Monsanto in 2018. The company then faced 67,000 lawsuits claiming that the main ingredient, glyphosate, causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Many of those cases are still awaiting trial in St. Louis County, where Bayer is headquartered.

Bayer attempted to lobby the Missouri legislators to pass a bill that would shield the company from lawsuits. Similar legislation was passed in North Dakota and Georgia.

In November 2023, a Cole County jury awarded three plaintiffs $1.6 billion. The plaintiffs claimed that their cancer was caused by glyphosate exposure while using Roundup. The Cole County Circuit Judge who presided over the case reduced the $500 million award for punitive damages awarded to each plaintiff. However, the judge did not reduce the award for actual damages, which ranged from $5.6 million to $38 million and totaled $61.1 million. With post-judgment interest, Bayer now owes more than $700 million. In a statement, attorneys for Bayer said they would continue to appeal the case despite accruing significant interest on the amount they owe to the plaintiffs.

Bayer is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take its appeal from a 2024 Missouri case that awarded $1.25 million in damages to a St. Louis plaintiff. The Eastern District Court of Appeals upheld that decision in February, and on April 1, the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, has given the parties time to file arguments on whether it should accept the case.

“The overwhelming weight of science as well as the assessments of the EPA and leading health regulators and scientists worldwide that support the safety and non-carcinogenicity of Roundup and we will continue to defend our products in court,” the company stated.

Bayer has paid out at least $10 billion in jury awards and settlements and said it had an additional $6 billion set aside for future decisions. That fund will quickly be depleted if Bayer continues to lose cases at the same clip as it has in recent months.

In addition to facing lawsuits filed by cancer patients, Bayer is facing a shareholders’ lawsuit over its decision to acquire Monsanto in 2018. Since the acquisition, Monsanto’s stock has dropped to $7 a share. It was trading at $30 a share prior to the acquisition.

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