Bayer-Monsanto have announced that the company will make a total payment of $10.1 billion to $10.9 billion (€9.1 billion to €9.8 billion) to settle the non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Roundup litigation in the U.S.. Roundup is the most sold glyphosate-based herbicide in the world.
The settlement covers approximately 75% of the current Roundup litigation involving approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall.
Bayer also settled Wednesday the recent dicamba drift litigation for payment of up to $400 million and a portion of the PCB water litigation exposure for payment of approximately $820 million.
Bayer-Monsanto will make a payment of $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve the current Roundup litigation, including an allowance expected to cover unresolved claims, and $1.25 billion to support a separate class agreement to address potential future litigation. The Roundup class agreement will be subject to approval by Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The resolutions were approved unanimously by Bayer’s Board of Management and Supervisory Board with input from its Special Litigation Committee.
“The Roundup agreements are designed as a constructive and reasonable resolution to a unique litigation,” said Kenneth R. Feinberg, court-appointed mediator for the settlement talks.
The three cases that have gone to trial so far – Johnson, Hardeman and Pilliod – will continue through the appeals process and are not covered by the settlement.
Roundup is currently under even more health scrutiny, as a group of independent scientific institutions has recently gathered together to perform the most comprehensive safety study ever on the weedkiller – the Global Glyphosate Study – and initial pilot results are not positive for glyphosate-based herbicide manufacturers such as Bayer-Monsanto. So despite this settlement Bayer is certainly not out of the woods yet on this issue.
Roundup Litigation Background:
In August 2018 Bayer-Monsanto lost a landmark cancer trial in San Francisco and was ordered by the Judge to pay over USD 289 Million in total damages to the former school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson, a California father who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which was caused by Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup. The case opened the floodgates and enabled thousands of other cancer sufferers to sue the company across the U.S..
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Johnson’s attorneys said he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma after spraying the glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer for two and a half years.
Monsanto is responsible for Dewayne “Lee” Johnson’s illness, suffering and reduced life expectancy because of the cancer-causing nature of its product, glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, the San Francisco Superior Court jury determined. The jury deliberated for three days after a four-week trial.
Glyphosate, the world’s most sold herbicide, was classified as a probable human carcinogen in 2015 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization. Monsanto, now a subsidiary of Bayer, held the initial patent and remains the leading distributor.
Resolution of dicamba litigation
Bayer also announced Wednesday a mass tort agreement to settle the previously disclosed dicamba drift litigation involving alleged damage to crops. The company will pay up to a total of $400 million to resolve the multi-district litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and claims for the 2015-2020 crop years. Claimants will be required to provide proof of damage to crop yields and evidence that it was due to dicamba in order to collect. The company expects a contribution from its co-defendant, BASF, towards this settlement.
The only dicamba drift case to go to trial – Bader Farms – is not included in this resolution.
Resolution of PCB litigation
Bayer also revealed Wednesday a series of agreements that resolve cases representing some of the company’s exposure to PCB water litigation. Monsanto manufactured PCBs until ceasing their production in 1977. One agreement establishes a class that includes all local governments with EPA permits involving water discharges impaired by PCBs. Bayer will pay a total of approximately $650 million to the class, which will be subject to court approval.
At the same time, the company has entered into separate agreements with the Attorneys-General of New Mexico, Washington, and the District of Columbia to resolve similar PCB claims. For these agreements, which are separate from the class, Bayer will make payments that together total approximately $170 million.
(9 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Absolutely brilliant.
Wow fantastic news!
HORRIBLE! bayer got off way too cheap. For them it’s a pinch that they can easily recover from and keep on poisoning the world. When the numbers tally, each family won’t get that much.
Should we expect Bayer-Monsanto to rescind it’s patent for Roundup or are these billions just a drop in the bucket? At what point will enough further litigation pile up that warrants the products removal from the market? Why is this already not enough?
The only way to end this madness to to continue with lawsuit after lawsuit. All of the settlements will eventually build up and bankrupt these evil bastards.
Sadly this is nothing to them. This March they announced a stock distribution of over $3 million, to their shareholders.
The only way to stop Bayer- Monsanto’s utter stupidity is to shut this poison business down and lock up these poison producers.
Bayer will earn back the $10b in year one. Where is the injunction or cease/desist order forcing them to recall all glyphosate products and refrain from making any more?
This is a sham, folks.
Talk to LOTS o people about it w respect and concern. Help them understand. Do your research, have copies of a scary info sheet to give to folks. Help them get concerned. MOST people don’t know. Some won’t care, BUT some WILL!! 🙂
This settlement is a paradigm shift. Possible outcomes:
• Bayer already has low credibility on Wall Street; share prices will drop further.
• Big box stores will be more cautious about stocking toxic products.
• State legislatures may ban RoundUp (since Congress is in gridlock)
• Voters will demand an end to CORPORATIONS BEING LEGAL PERSONS (i.e. end Citizens United)
• Voters will end corporate control of Congress by demanding public financing of election campaigns. Already the party system (which was never part of the Constitution) remains in charge of primaries despite being a minority in many states. Overall, an April 2020 Gallup poll found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 30% as Republican, and 36% as No Party Preference.
• As the flaws of chemical agriculture continue to be exposed, farming will evolve to organic methods, which will increase the rural population (organic is more labor intensive), breaking up investor-controlled corporate farming and providing work in rural areas for people out of work in the failing American economy.
• The Precautionary Principle will adopted by cities, counties, states, and eventually the national government.
This settlement is not good. Bayer accepts no liability for all of us that have cancer as a result. My immune system was killed off and I get monthly infusions of immune globulin for the rest of my life. My life expectancy has been drastically cut short and I can no longer work as a registered nurse. Further litigation against Bayer must be carried out.
Unfortunately, in Brazil, Glyphosate will continue, with impunity, polluting the ecosystem, killing pollinators, poisoning the local population and of other nations to which its products are exported. We are one of the world leaders in agribusiness and poison consumption.
In Brazil, pesticide industries have tax exemptions.
Shame!