Settlement Overview

 
JUNE 24, 2020

Bayer Announces Agreements to Resolve Major Legacy Monsanto Litigation, Including Roundup™ Litigation

Note that the announcement below is from 2020. The Company’s current posture is that it will continue to try cases based on decades of science and worldwide regulatory assessments that continue to support Roundup’s safety and non-carcinogenicity. The Company will consider settling individual current and future cases only if it provides clear economic advantages for it to do so.

On June 24, 2020, Bayer announced a series of agreements that will substantially resolve major outstanding Monsanto litigation, including U.S. Roundup™ product liability litigation. The U.S. Roundup™ resolution will bring closure to approximately 75% of the current Roundup™ litigation involving approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall. The resolved claims include all plaintiff law firms leading the Roundup™ federal multi-district litigation (MDL) or the California bellwether cases, and those representing approximately 95% of the cases currently set for trial, and establish key values and parameters to guide the resolution of the remainder of the claims as negotiations advance.

Key Provisions:

  • 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.
  • Those participating in the settlement will be required to dismiss their cases or agree not to file.
  • The range of $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion covers both the agreements already signed and those that are still under negotiation.
  • Customers, including farmers and other professional users who depend on glyphosate-based herbicides for their livelihoods, will see no change in the availability of Roundup™ products under the agreements.
  • The three cases that have gone to trial — Johnson, Hardeman and Pilliod — are not covered by the settlement.
 Read Bayer’s press release here.
 
As of Q4 2023, 113,000 current claims have been covered by settlement agreements, or did not meet the settlement program eligibility criteria.