The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an appeal by Monsanto, now owned by the German group Bayer, finalizing its sentence to pay $ 25 million to a pensioner who blames his cancer on the weedkiller Roundup.
In accordance with custom, the high court did not justify its decision, which risks having serious consequences for the group, targeted by more than 30,000 comparable complaints. The Bayer group said it had set aside an additional $4.5 billion to deal with new procedures.
Bayer shares fell 4.07% to 60.79 euros on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after the announcement.
“Bayer respectfully disagrees with the Supreme Court’s decision” but “is fully prepared to face the legal risk associated with potential future complaints in the United States,” the group responded in a statement.
The company says “admit no wrong or liability” and “continue to support its Roundup products, a valuable tool for efficient agricultural production around the world.”
The court’s decision not to intervene leaves in place Monsanto’s appeal conviction in the lawsuit brought by Edwin Hardeman, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015.
Edwin Hardeman was one of the first plaintiffs to sue Monsanto, blaming his cancer on the herbicide he had used on his large property for 25 years, and accusing the Monsanto group of misleading users by claiming that the glyphosate product was harmless.
Monsanto has always insisted that no study has concluded that glyphosate and Roundup, which were marketed in the 1970s, are dangerous. The German group Bayer acquired the American Monsanto in 2018 for 63 billion dollars.