Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary have agreed to create a Roundup settlement fund to reimburse consumers who say they were not adequately warned about the potential link between Roundup and cancer and therefore overpaid for the weed killer. Once faced with more than 120,000 product liability lawsuits brought by former Roundup users who alleged that the weed killer caused them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other serious health problems, Bayer and Monsanto have already agreed to pay billions to resolve individual and class action claims. This proposed Roundup settlement fund would set aside another $23 million to $45 million to resolve a class action lawsuit claiming that the manufacturer failed to provide adequate cancer warnings on the Roundup label. If you or someone you love has been harmed by alleged Roundup side effects, contact Consumer Safety Watch today to find out if you may be eligible for compensation from the manufacturer.
Roundup is a broad-spectrum herbicide initially introduced to the market in the 1970’s to kill broadleaf weeds and grasses. Once a best-selling weed killer sold for both residential and commercial use, Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, has since been linked to a potential non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma risk in users. In fact, to limit its future liability for Roundup cancer claims, Bayer plans to remove glyphosate from all residential Roundup products beginning in 2023. In the meantime, Roundup is still being sold, and unsuspecting consumers are using it on their crops, fields, orchards, and backyard lawns and gardens, unaware that it could be putting them at risk for cancer. And because there is typically a 10- to 15-year latency period between glyphosate exposure and onset of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma symptoms, Bayer and Monsanto will still likely face years of future litigation and potential Roundup settlements as former users continue to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma from the decades glyphosate has been on the market without cancer warnings.
This latest settlement agreement with Bayer and Monsanto marks a big step forward for consumers who purchased Roundup to use as a weed killer with no knowledge of the potential harm it could cause. In a motion filed last week, plaintiffs involved in the class action lawsuit asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to preliminarily approve the proposed settlement, which would establish a fund against which the members of the class action can claim roughly 20% of the average retail price of the Roundup products they purchased. “The Settlement is fair and reasonable and provides the Settlement Class with an outstanding result,” the notice of the motion states. “Class Members stand to receive two-thirds of Plaintiffs’ estimate of best-case damages—and many times more than Monsanto’s expert’s estimate of damages—and the fund is sufficient to pay those amounts under anticipated claims rates.”
The proposed Roundup settlement is similar to more than a dozen other actions brought against Bayer and Monsanto in recent years, all of which allege, among other things, “economic loss arising from misleading marketing and labeling of the Products, and in particular alleged omissions regarding the Products’ known potential health risks,” namely the potential for Roundup to cause cancer. The lawsuits stem from a growing body of evidence indicating that Monsanto knew for years that Roundup could cause cancer and kept this information from the public. Bayer is not the original manufacturer of Roundup, but the company inherited Roundup, and the litigation along with it, when it purchased Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.
“Despite Monsanto’s knowledge of Roundup’s potential carcinogenicity, Monsanto has failed to convey this information to consumers in its promotion, marketing, advertising, distribution, labeling, and sale of Roundup,” the Roundup class action lawsuit claims. “Monsanto and the retailer-defendants have defended by pointing to scientific studies and regulatory findings they contend show glyphosate is not carcinogenic and does not pose any unreasonable risks to human health, and by arguing that cancer warnings on the Products are unwarranted and/or improper.” In fact, while agreeing to the Roundup settlement, Bayer argues that putting a cancer warning on the Roundup label would have contradicted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s conclusion that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.
Bayer maintains that decades of research has shown that Roundup and glyphosate are safe for human use, yet there is a great deal of evidence suggesting the opposite – that Roundup’s active ingredient can increase the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a serious blood cancer that begins in the lymphatic system. Thousands of people have claimed that Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and in many cases, juries have agreed, awarding tens of millions of dollars in damages to plaintiffs. If you have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and you believe exposure to glyphosate in Roundup to be the cause, do not hesitate to speak to a knowledgeable Roundup cancer lawyer about your legal options. You may have grounds to file a Roundup lawsuit against Bayer and Monsanto, but there is a statute of limitations for pursuing compensation, so don’t wait to call.
