The herbicide is suspected of being carcinogenic.
(Photo: Reuters)
new York The Leverkusen-based pharmaceutical and agrochemical group Bayer has suffered another defeat in the glyphosate dispute in the USA. A federal appeals court on Tuesday reopened the case of plaintiff John Carson from the state of Georgia, which Bayer had already won in the first instance at the end of 2020.
The court in Montgomery, Alabama, dismissed Bayer’s argument that federal law protected the company from state lawsuits like Carson’s. Carson attributes his 2016 cancer diagnosis to years of use of Bayer’s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup. The company should have warned about the cancer risk on the product’s label, Carson said.
Bayer said the company disagreed with the verdict and would review all options. A cancer warning would conflict with the US Environmental Protection Agency-approved label. “Bayer continues to fully support its Roundup products,” the company said. Bayer had caught the wave of lawsuits with the multi-billion dollar takeover of Roundup manufacturer Monsanto in 2018. An attorney for Carson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Bayer had hoped by denying Carlson’s appeal that it would help the Supreme Court resolve the glyphosate dispute. Divergent jurisprudence among appellate courts could set the stage for a Supreme Court review, potentially limiting the company’s liability in thousands of lawsuits.
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To date, Bayer has lost three court cases involving millions in damages and has suffered defeats in all previous appeals. In two of these cases, Bayer has since failed before the US Supreme Court. In 2021, the group also won two glyphosate cases for the first time, and two more cases in June.
More: Bayer wanted to eliminate the risks from the Monsanto takeover. But the highest US court rejected the appeal. The most important questions and answers.