3M agrees to pay $5.5 billion for defective military earplugs – Kommersant

American diversified holding 3M has reached a preliminary agreement to pay compensation in the amount of $5.5 billion in exchange for the settlement of more than 300,000 lawsuits against it. The company has been accused of producing low-quality earplugs for the military, which has left many of them with hearing loss or even deafness. Writes about the agreement Bloomberg with reference to sources. The company will pay this amount over a period of five years. The 3M Board of Directors has yet to finalize this agreement.

Plaintiffs allege that 3M’s earplugs, which are supposed to protect military personnel’s ears from loud noises – from explosions, projectile launches, etc. – didn’t really protect them enough. Because of this, many military personnel were hearing impaired – it is reported that in 2012 alone, the US Department of Defense received more than 970 thousand complaints of tinnitus and other similar symptoms. According to the plaintiffs, such earplugs with defects were supplied to the US military for 12 years – starting in 2003.

The amount 3M has agreed on is almost half what some experts predicted. Thus, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts expected that 3M would have to pay $9.5 billion, and Barclays – $8 billion. said Professor of Law at the University of Richmond Carl Tobias. 3M has previously lost several court cases in this case, and was ordered to pay a total of $250 million in damages to several dozen plaintiffs.

In June 3M agreed to pay $10.3 billion in a class-action lawsuit by residents of several US states about pollution of local water bodies and soil with chemicals produced by it.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya