Bayer has announced a series of agreements that brings closure to about 75 percent of the current Roundup litigation involving nearly 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall.
“The company 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,” Bayer said in a June 24 news release.
The agreements contain no admission of liability or wrongdoing.
The settlement does not cover the three Roundup cases in California that have gone to trial involving Dewayne Johnson, Edwin Hardeman and Alva and Alberta Pilliod. Those cases will continue through the appeals process.
The agreements also include payments of $400 million to settle dicamba drift damage complaints.
The settlement allows Bayer to bring a long period of litigation uncertainty to an end to ensure important crop protection chemicals are available for U.S. agriculture.
“The decision to resolve the Roundup litigation enables us to focus fully on the critical supply of healthcare and food. It will also return the conversation about the safety and utility of glyphosate-based herbicides to the scientific and regulatory arena and to the full body of science,” Bayer CEO Werner Baumann said.
The company said that before deciding to settle, it considered the alternative course of continuing to litigate Roundup cases. In the company’s risk assessment, potential negative outcomes of further litigation, including more advertising and growing number of plaintiffs, upwards of twenty trials per year and uncertain jury outcomes, and associated reputational and business impacts, likely would substantially exceed the settlement and related costs.
Click here for more information on the Bayer settlement.