A judge in the US state of Missouri has capped punitive damages in a glyphosate lawsuit against Bayer. In a March 15 order, Judge Daniel Green left the $61.1 million in compensatory damages in place but reduced the punitive damages to nine times that amount, $549.9 million.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages generally cannot exceed nine times compensatory damages. Bayer said it would appeal the decision.
In November, a jury in Missouri ruled in favor of three plaintiffs who attributed their cancer to the weed killer Roundup, which contains glyphosate. Bayer had already appealed the decision, saying decades of studies had shown that Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate were safe. Authorities worldwide classify the drug as non-carcinogenic. The World Health Organization’s cancer research agency rated the active ingredient as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015.
Roundup is one of the most commonly used weed killers in the United States. Bayer acquired the US glyphosate developer Monsanto in 2018. Since then, the German company has faced legal battles over whether Roundup causes cancer. Bayer agreed in 2020 to settle most of the disputes for $10.9 billion, but was unable to find a solution for future cases.