Operations are being reviewed and changed. - Bayer faces a reduced payment obligation in the glyphosate lawsuit.
Bayer, the pharmaceutical and agricultural chemicals firm, will pay less in a Roundup lawsuit concerning a glyphosate-containing weed killer.
The court in Philadelphia scaled down the damage award granted to the plaintiff by the jury from $2.25 billion to $400 million (€367.5 million), as stated in court papers. This was the highest damage award for the Roundup court cases that began in 2018. Bayer plans to lodge an appeal.
The company remarked, "Although the court has diminished the unconstitutionally excessive damage award, we do not concur with the court's ruling in the matter." The trial process contained severity errors that must be rectified, Bayer highlighted. The company added that it had effectively defended itself in 14 out of the last 20 cases. Moreover, Bayer noted that most of the legal actions had been settled.
The glyphosate-containing Roundup weed killer raised concerns for Bayer ever since the company procured the US firm Monsanto in 2018 for more than 60 billion euros. The first verdict against the DAX company surfaced in the same year. This triggered a series of legal cases in the US. In 2020, Bayer launched a $1 billion program to solve the majority of the legal disputes without accepting liability. However, potential risks still exist. As of the end of January, around 54,000 of the 165,000 cases were yet to be settled. The Roundup court cases have already led to €13 billion in expenses for Bayer. Provisions totaled $6.3 billion (€5.7 billion) at the end of 2023.
