Roundup Lawsuit

Roundup is the world’s most widely used herbicide and one of the most common weed killers used in agriculture, landscaping, and home gardening. Introduced by Monsanto in 1974 and acquired by Bayer in 2018, Roundup’s active ingredient is glyphosate, a chemical designed to kill weeds by blocking essential plant proteins.

Roundup is sold in dozens of formulations, including:

• Roundup Ready-to-Use
• Roundup for Lawns
• Roundup Max Control

Glyphosate use has surged over the past several decades, especially after the introduction of genetically modified crops engineered to tolerate the herbicide. Today, more than 1.4 billion pounds of glyphosate are applied globally each year, with roughly 100 million pounds used annually in the United States.

On June 24, 2020, Bayer announced it would pay up to $10.9 billion to resolve roughly threequarters of the 125,000 Roundup cancer claims then pending. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who oversees the federal Roundup multidistrict litigation (MDL), issued a 90day stay to allow the parties to finalize settlement details. Soon after, however, plaintiffs’ attorneys reported delays and inconsistencies in Bayer’s execution of the agreement. In response, Judge Chhabria set a September 24, 2020, deadline for the parties to either complete the settlement or prepare to resume litigation.

In the weeks leading up to that deadline, Bayer announced an additional 15,000 settlements, bringing the total number of resolved cases to approximately 45,000. Still, at least 30,000 claims remained unresolved. Settlement payouts have varied widely, ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 depending on the strength of the individual case. Critics argue these amounts fall short of covering the true financial burden of cancer treatment. According to the National Institutes of Health, six months of treatment for aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma can exceed $85,000, not including lost wages, longterm medical needs, or pain and suffering.

Despite ongoing litigation and mounting scientific evidence, Bayer continues to sell Roundup without adding cancer warnings to its labels. Because it can take years—or even decades—for glyphosate exposure to develop into a cancer diagnosis, new cases continue to emerge.