Roundup: Bayer announces at least $ 10 billion compensation agreement

Roundup has been classified as a probably carcinogenic product by a WHO body (illustration image). REUTERS / Mike Blake

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Ten to eleven billion dollars: this is the impressive amount of the agreement that the German chemical giant Bayer has resolved to sign to compensate American plaintiffs, in order to settle more than 100,000 disputes mainly concerning Roundup, glyphosate pesticide marketed by its subsidiary Monsanto.

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The deal "  will put an end to around 75% of the disputes  " involving the Roundup, "  which concern around 125,000 complaints in total  ", whether or not they have been registered by the courts, Bayer said in a statement on Wednesday 24 June in the evening. The American plaintiffs accuse this pesticide of having caused the cancer from which they suffer.

"  This settlement is important to our clients because it is a long and arduous battle and it does justice to our clients,  " said victims' lawyer Jennifer Moore.

Bayer "will  make a payment between $ 8.8 billion and $ 9.6 billion (7.8 and 8.5 billion euros, note), to resolve the ongoing Roundup dispute, including an allocation to cover the unresolved cases, and 1.25 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros, editor's note) to support a separate "class agreement"  to resolve possible future disputes  . " The German giant specifies however that these agreements, as well as others of less financial importance, "  do not contain any acknowledgment of responsibility or fault  ".

A “  financially reasonable  ” agreement

This Roundup agreement "  comes at the right time for Bayer to put an end to a long period of uncertainty  ", said in a statement Werner Baumann, chairman of the executive board of Bayer, deeming it "  financially reasonable in relation to the significant financial risks that 'would involve litigation running over several years  '.

►Read also: Glyphosate: Bayer wins an important legal victory over Roundup

In addition, it "  sets up a clear mechanism to manage the risks of potential future litigation  " and, Baumann hopes, it "  will also return the debate on the safety and usefulness of glyphosate herbicides to the regulatory arena and within the framework of science  ”.

In any case, this should not put an end to the controversies concerning Roundup, classified in 2015 as “  probable carcinogen  ” by the International Center against Cancer (Circ), a body of the WHO, and glyphosate.

(With AFP)

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