The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Germany’s Bayer over a landmark ruling that awarded $25 million (€23.7 million) to a man who claimed the weedkiller Roundup had caused his cancer, in a move that could force the group to spend billions of euro compensating customers.
The decision frustrates Bayer’s plan to stem the wave of litigation it has faced since its $63 billion takeover of agrichemicals group Monsanto in 2018. More than 30,000 claims remain outstanding, for which Bayer set aside $4.5 billion last year while it appealed to the US Supreme Court to review the case won by Californian Edwin Hardeman.
That sum is in addition to the approximately $11.5 billion Bayer has been forced to set aside for existing and future Roundup lawsuits, more than 107,000 of which have been settled to date. The company largely postponed settling further cases while it waited to see if its petition to the US Supreme Court was accepted.
“Bayer respectfully disagrees with the supreme court’s decision,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday. “The company believes that the decision undermines the ability of companies to rely on official actions taken by expert regulatory agencies.”
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Bayer’s shares fell almost 4 per cent following the court’s decision not to hear the appeal.
The group had previously pledged to establish a “voluntary claims resolution programme” to deal with extant claims if the US Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. Although it has won four recent Roundup cases that went to trial, Bayer is now likely to seek rapid settlements with future claimants to avoid protracted litigation, according to a person with knowledge of the group’s plans.
Bayer announced last year that it would stop selling glyphosate-based products to retail consumers in the US from 2023. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022
