A judge in the US state of Pennsylvania has reduced the fine in a glyphosate case against Bayer from $2.25 billion to $400 million. Bayer nevertheless announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In a ruling Tuesday, Judge Susan Schulman granted some of Bayer’s objections and reduced compensatory damages to $50 million and punitive damages to $350 million.
“Although the court reduced the unconstitutionally excessive amount of damages, we continue to disagree with the liability finding because the proceedings were marred by significant and correctable errors,” a company spokesperson said.
Plaintiff has cancer
Early this year, a Pennsylvania jury ruled in favor of plaintiff John McKivison that his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was caused by years of using the weedkiller Roundup, which contains glyphosate, while gardening. Bayer was ordered to pay $250 million in damages and a $2 billion fine.
Roundup is one of the most commonly used herbicides in the United States. Bayer acquired American glyphosate developer Monsanto in 2018. Since then, the German company has faced legal disputes over whether Roundup causes cancer.
There are still 50,000 lawsuits pending
In 2020, Bayer agreed to a settlement of up to $9.6 billion for most of the then-pending Roundup cases, but failed to reach a settlement for future cases. There are still more than 50,000 lawsuits pending.
Bayer said decades of research have shown that Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate are safe. Authorities around the world classify the drug as non-carcinogenic. However, the World Health Organization’s Cancer Research Agency rated the active ingredient as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
