The legal victory could pave the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on Roundup,
which has generated years of litigation alleging it caused cancer.
By Sky Chadde, Investigate Midwest
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 should “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.
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