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 one hundred thousand disputes concerning especially the Round ' Up, glyphosate pesticide marketed by its subsidiary Monsanto.
This agreement "will put an end to around 75% of disputes"
The deal "will put an end to around 75% of the disputes" involving Round'up, "which concern around 125,000 complaints in total", whether or not they have been filed with the courts, Bayer said in a statement on Wednesday 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.
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"No acknowledgment of responsibility"
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' in order 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".
The Roundup agreement "comes at the right time for Bayer to end a long period of uncertainty", said in a statement Werner Baumann, Chairman of the Management Board of Bayer, deeming it "financially reasonable in relation to the significant financial risks that 'would involve litigation running for several years ". In addition, it "sets up a clear mechanism to manage the risks of potential future litigation" and, Baumann hopes, it "will also refer the debate on the safety and usefulness of glyphosate herbicides to the regulatory arena and within the framework of science ".
Round'Up, classified as "probable carcinogen" in 2015
In any case, this should not put an end to the controversies concerning Round'Up, classified in 2015 as "probable carcinogen" by the International Center against Cancer (Circ), a WHO body, and glyphosate. "Bayer, which continues to market Round'Up and other glyphosate Monsanto products and to deny their carcinogenic nature, agrees to pay $ 10 billion to settle procedures with 100,000 American plaintiffs, all is well", reacted thus the association Attac France, on its Twitter account.
"A formidable precedent for other victims and all those who fight against glyphosate and those who authorize it," commented on the same network the lawyer and former French Minister of the Environment Corinne Lepage. Bayer says that "the three cases that have gone to trial will continue through the appeal process and are not covered by the settlement agreement. It is important for Bayer to continue these cases, as the appeals will provide useful legal precedents for the future. "