Bayer fined $1.5 billion in Roundup herbicide case – Kommersant

A Missouri court in Jefferson City fined Bayer $1.5 billion, one of the largest corporate fines in the United States this year, reports Bloomberg.

The court upheld the claim of three clients of the American company Monsanto, which Bayer bought it out in 2016. However, since 2018, claims have been filed against Monsanto one after another in connection with its Roundup herbicide, which, according to the plaintiffs, is harmful to health and can cause cancer. Bayer automatically became a defendant in these claims.

In 2020 Bayer settled the majority of such claims are about 100 thousand, having agreed to pay almost $11 billion. At the same time, about 40 thousand claims against the company are still being considered.

Jurors in Jefferson City court awarded James Draeger, Valorie Guenther and Dan Anderson a total of $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million each in punitive damages against the company. They stated that they had been using Roundup on their lawns and gardens for years, which caused them to develop lymphosarcoma.

Bayer said it believes U.S. judges allowed former Roundup users to misinterpret regulatory decisions governing the product’s safety, leading to a string of victories for plaintiffs. “We have a strong case to have the recent unfounded verdicts overturned,” a company spokesman said.

Kirill Sarkhanyants