Bayer proposes $7.25 billion Roundup settlement

(CN) — Monsanto announced Tuesday it submitted a $7.25 billion settlement in Missouri state court to “significantly contain” spiraling product liability litigation stemming from its glyphosate weedkiller, Roundup.

The proposed settlement includes up to 21 years of payments that Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company, says will “provide the company with both greater certainty and control regarding its litigation costs for current claims and potential future claimants.”

It will require final approval from a judge in St. Louis Circuit Court, but according to a press release, the class’s attorneys have also sought approval.

“The proposed class settlement agreement, together with the Supreme Court case, provides an essential path out of the litigation uncertainty and enables us to devote our full attention to furthering the innovations that lie at the core of our mission: health for all, hunger for none,” said Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, in a statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court case referenced by Anderson is Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, which was accepted for arguments by the justices in January 2026 and will determine whether claims based on state law are preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

Monsanto has been blamed by nearly 65,000 plaintiffs in various lawsuits across the United States for adverse effects, including cancer, that stem from the use of its weedkiller, Roundup.

The company has staunchly defended its use of glyphosate — classified as “probably carcinogenic” by the World Health Organization in 2015 — and emphasized in its statement the settlement will contain no admission of liability.

Any plaintiffs who claim exposure to Roundup prior to Feb. 17, 2026, and have a medical diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma now or receive such a diagnosis within the next 16 years, are eligible for payments under the proposed agreement.

Monsanto and Bayer have faced a litany of lawsuits in recent years, and not just for injuries supposedly caused by glyphosate.

The companies settled a consumer claims lawsuit in 2023, filed by more than 230,000 customers who sought to recoup overpayments based on Roundup’s lack of a cancer warning label.

More recently, Bayer settled for $38 million in a lawsuit filed by a class of shareholders who claimed the Leverkusen-based company misled investors about its buyout of Monsanto.

The $63 billion buyout, finalized in 2018, came just months before the first jury verdict in favor of a Roundup user awarded $250 million punitive damages, and investors claim Bayer downplayed the risks of glyphosate to prevent a stock price dip.

A federal judge previously rejected Bayer’s attempts to cover future claims for $2 billion in 2021.

The settlement payouts will be financed by a bank loan of $8 billion, and will also “utilize senior bonds and instruments receiving equity-credit by rating agencies and not an authorized capital increase,” according to Bayer’s statement.

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