A group of consumers asked a Delaware federal court Monday to preliminarily approve a deal under which Monsanto Co. has agreed to pay up to $45 million to resolve nationwide proposed class claims alleging the agrochemical giant fraudulently marketed its weed killer Roundup without disclosing its potential cancer links.
If approved, the deal would end a nationwide proposed consumer class action filed by eight plaintiffs in August, along with multiple other related actions, potentially including the high-profile, hotly contested case Ezcurra v. Monsanto currently pending on the 11th Circ. The lawsuits accuse the Bayer AG subsidiary of violating state consumer-protection and false-advertising statutes by selling glyphosate-containing Roundup weedkiller products without disclosing that they may cause cancer or other health effects. The consumers argue they would not have paid as much or they would not have purchased the products if warnings had been on the products.
The personal injury litigation, which has stalled in the courts as Bayer has tried to resolve the over a hundred thousand of cases in mediation, has resulted in three multi-million dollar plaintiffs’ jury verdicts in California, two of which have been upheld by state and federal and appellate courts, while the third is still pending on appeal.
The instant motion lists the settlement fund as between $23 million and $45 million and clarifies that the proposed deal does not address the injury liability claims, only those for fraud.
Law360: https://www.law360.com/articles/1393991/monsanto-to-pay-up-to-45m-to-end-roundup-labeling-suits