A Georgia jury has awarded a $2.1 billion verdict against Bayer in a Roundup lawsuit filed by plaintiff John Barnes, who claimed damages related to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Barnes argued that there should have been clearer warnings about the dangers of the product.
Since acquiring Monsanto in 2018, Bayer has been embroiled in Roundup litigation. The company has won 17 out of approximately two dozen trials. Of the roughly 181,000 claims, around 114,000 have been settled or dismissed for various reasons, as per Bayer’s 2024 annual report.
Despite some victories, plaintiffs have also won significant cases against Bayer, including those where juries awarded billions of dollars. To date, Bayer has paid approximately $10 billion to settle claims that Roundup and glyphosate cause cancer, with an additional $5.9 billion reserved for ongoing litigation.
Some of Bayer’s losses have seen damages reduced on appeal, even when judges agree that Roundup contributed to plaintiffs’ cancer or that Monsanto was aware of glyphosate’s potential dangers but failed to issue appropriate warnings. Constitutional limits on punitive damages have been cited in several instances.
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015, contributing to the ongoing debate over its safety.
— news from The Washington Post