Roundup

Bayer’s subsidiary Monsanto has been ordered by a US court to pay a huge sum in damages and restitution to former users of its weed killer Roundup, according to Bloomberg.

The customers claim that it is Roundup that is to blame for their developing lymphoma after decades of using the herbicide. Now they have won the court case after a jury in Missouri has taken their side.

James Draeger, Valorie Gunther and Dan Anderson were awarded $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million each in punitive damages. This corresponds to a total of NOK 18.3 billion.

Despite previous victories for Monsanto, recent court decisions have found Roundup to contain carcinogens, resulting in significant payouts.

Messed up with research

This sentencing in Missouri is not the largest in the Roundup case.

In 2019, a California jury awarded over $2 billion to a couple who claimed they had developed cancer after 30 years of using Roundup. This amount was later reduced to $87 million and upheld by the Supreme Court. Bayer is facing a flood of lawsuits regarding Roundup, and has set aside a whopping 16 billion dollars – 170 billion kroner – to resolve cases after the acquisition of Monsanto.

The plaintiffs allege that Monsanto hid studies linking cancer to glyphosate – the main ingredient in Roundup. Internal documents reveal that the company wrote scientific studies supporting that glyphosate was safe.

Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, assesses the company’s direction after these decisions in the legal system. Ongoing litigation may further affect the company’s strategies and reputation.

Will change the ingredients

Bayer believes that the former users of Roundup have misrepresented the product’s safety and that this has led to the victory in the court case.

The company points to the Environmental Protection Agency’s confirmation that Roundup is safe to use, and also says it plans to transition to new weed-killing ingredients for the US market.