A Missouri judge was urged last week by Bayer’s Monsanto unit to approve its $7.25bn proposed settlement of lawsuits alleging that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, saying this was the only way to resolve the litigation that has been ongoing for years, and was its final offer, reports Reuters.
The company is attempting to settle nearly all existing and future Roundup cancer claims in the United States through a new class action filed in Missouri in February.
Judge Timothy Boyer heard arguments from supporters and opponents of the proposed deal at a hearing in St Louis last Monday.
Bayer has consistently denied that Roundup causes cancer, and Monsanto attorney James Bennett told the judge that the company is prepared to fight the lawsuits in court if the deal is rejected.
“This is the settlement,” Bennett said at last week’s court hearing. “There is not another settlement.”
Boyer asked no questions during the hearing and did not indicate when he would rule. He invited supporters and opponents of the deal to submit additional filings by the end of the week before he decides whether to approve it.
In a statement after the hearing, Bayer’s Monsanto unit said the settlement is fair, has broad support among plaintiffs’ lawyers, and warrants final approval by the court.
The judge heard from several attorneys who spoke up in favour of the settlement, including class-action lawyers who negotiated the deal and some who initially opposed it.
One attorney whose firm represents 3 000 Roundup plaintiffs told Boyer that 800 or 900 of those clients initially wanted to opt out of the deal, but reconsidered and decided to opt back into the settlement after the Supreme Court sided with Monsanto on a key legal issue in June.
He said the Supreme Court’s ruling, which cut off claims that Roundup’s label should have warned consumers about the weedkiller’s cancer risks, dealt a major blow to many of the cases.
Objectors have argued that the settlement does not offer enough money, and they say their clients should not be pushed into Bayer’s proposed framework.
The proposed settlement offers payouts ranging from $10 000 to $165 000 to people who were exposed to Roundup and developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer.
The exact award will depend on factors such as the severity of the person’s cancer, how old they were when they were diagnosed, and whether they were exposed to Roundup at home or at work.
T Roe Frazer, an attorney opposing the settlement, said the proposed payouts are inadequate, noting that individual claimants would receive no more than $165 000 and that few would qualify for the highest award. The settlement, he added, does not reflect the potential scope of future claims because Roundup remains on the market and studies suggest that 80% of Americans have been exposed to glyphosate, Roundup’s key ingredient.
“Even though $7.25bn looks like a lot of money, it’s just not enough,” Frazer said. “It can’t be.”
Litigation overhang
Bayer is facing around 65 000 claims in US state and federal courts from plaintiffs who say they developed cancer after using Roundup at home or on the job.
The litigation has dogged Bayer since its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, costing the company billions of dollars and driving down its share price.
The company previously spent about $10bn in 2020 to resolve most of the then-existing Roundup lawsuits, but Bayer was unable to get court approval of a parallel $1.25 bn settlement that would have resolved future Roundup claims.
Bayer has denied the claims and said that decades of studies have shown glyphosate is safe and does not cause cancer.
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