Roundup Lawsuit Verdicts Continue To Pile Up, With $2.1B Award by Georgia Jury

Even after paying billions in Roundup settlements for failing to warn consumers about the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary continue to face thousands of lawsuits in courts nationwide.

Years after the first Roundup lawsuits were filed, involving allegations that the widely marketed weedkiller increases the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, juries are still hammering Monsanto and its parent company Bayer with massive punitive and compensatory damage awards.

Roundup has been widely used for decades in the agricultural industry and for residential purposes, containing the active ingredient glyphosate. Although it has been marketed as safe for humans, research over the last few decades has linked Roundup exposure to an increased risk of cancer, which the manufacturers never disclosed on the product lable.

At the litigation’s peak, Bayer and Monsanto faced more than 180,000 claims, and the manufacturers have paid more than $10 billion to settle claims. However, there are still tens of thousands of claims that have not been resolved, and new lawsuits continue to be filed as former users are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

This latest verdict was reached by a Georgia state jury, which ordered Roundup’s manufacturers to pay $65 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages to John Barnes, who claimed that Roundup led to his development of cancer.

The lawsuit was originally brought in 2021, alleging that Bayer and Monsanto knew or should have known about the risk of Roundup side effects causing users to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but he indicated that they placed a desire for profits before the health and safety of consumers.

The verdict comes on the heels of an announcement by Bayer earlier this month, which indicated the company will seek shareholder approval to issue new shares to raise money to cover the ongoing costs of Roundup litigation. 

Since the manufacturers have failed to establish that they can defend the safety of Roundup at trial, recent reports indicate that Bayer officials have been asking U.S. lawmakers to grant the company special legal protections against Roundup lawsuits, or else it may have to remove the products from the U.S. market.

Bayer has made several legal attempts to convince courts to dismiss Roundup lawsuits, arguing that the company should be exempt from liability under existing federal preemption laws. However, judges have repeatedly shot down the company’s legal theory, and lawsuits continue to move forward through the U.S. court system.

After spending billions in Roundup settlements, Bayer announced in 2021 that it would reformulate Roundup and remove the active ingredient glyphosate from consumer versions of the weedkiller. However, there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for the company as juries continue to hear evidence about how long Monsanto knew about the potential cancer risks.