Bayer notches win in Roundup litigation

Bayer, the German conglomerate, won a legal victory last week in the long-running litigation over whether its popular Roundup pesticide has caused cancer.

The case started in 2019, when a husband and wife in Pennsylvania sued Monsanto, which Bayer purchased in 2018, and alleged the company had violated state law by not including a cancer warning label on Roundup. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides, did not make the company add such a warning.

On Aug. 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Pennsylvania, ruled the federal law governing pesticides — the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA — requires “nationwide uniformity” over pesticide regulation. The state of Pennsylvania did not have authority in the case, the court decided.

The appeals court decision in Pennsylvania conflicts with another decision made earlier this year in Atlanta, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.

In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled FIFRA did not preempt state law. Georgia’s law on warning residents about possible harms from pesticides was “fully consistent with” the federal law, according to the Business Journal.

Because the decisions conflict with each other, that could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court stepping in, according to Reuters.

Bayer told Reuters the Supreme Court shoud “settle this important issue of law.”

In 2020, Bayer settled most of its Roundup litigation for about $10 billion, but some cases still remain active.
After news of the legal victory, Bayer’s stock price surged, according to Bloomberg. It had been slumping over the past year.