Bayer seeks short delay to $7.25 billion Roundup settlement hearing

Bayer AG

05/08/2026 22:38

By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Bayer has asked a Missouri court to reschedule a hearing to evaluate the company's $7.25 billion proposed settlement of cases alleging that its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.
Bayer's Monsanto unit and plaintiffs' lawyers who support the deal in a joint filing on Tuesday asked the court for a three-week delay which would push back the settlement approval hearing to September 10, rather than August 19. 
The ​German drugmaking and crop science company is facing approximately 65,000 claims in U.S. state and federal courts from plaintiffs who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other forms of cancer after using Roundup at home or on the job. Bayer, which acquired Roundup when it purchased Monsanto in 2018, has said that decades of studies have shown ​Roundup's key ingredient, glyphosate, is safe, and does not cause cancer.
Attorneys representing plaintiffs objecting to the settlement have criticized several aspects of the settlement, saying that the Missouri state court does not have the power to bind citizens of other U.S. states and that Bayer's "draconian" procedures for opting out of the settlement ‌are designed to trap people who wish to pursue their lawsuits in court.
Bayer and the lawyers said in the filing that the additional time would help resolve requests to opt out of the class action settlement. They said they are considering requests from people who opted out of the settlement but now want back in, after a recent Supreme Court decision undercut one of the central legal claims in the Roundup cases.

     Bayer's proposal aims to bring closure by resolving current and future claims that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and it said when announcing the deal that the settlement won't go forward if too many people opt out. If more than 650 class members opt out, Bayer can deduct what it would have paid them from the overall settlement fund, up to $400 million.
The settlement allows Bayer and the lead class action attorneys to vet and possibly deny opt-outs, which has been criticized by lawyers for plaintiffs who oppose the settlement. Lawyers who support the deal have said that the vetting process will ensure that invalid opt-outs don't end up causing the deal to fail, but lawyers who oppose the deal say that allowing Bayer to contest the opt-outs creates a needless bureaucratic hurdle for people who don't want to join the settlement. 
The three-week delay will also help resolve disputes over the validity of contested opt-out decisions, according to the joint filing. 
The proposed ​settlement, if approved, would resolve most of the current Roundup cases in the U.S. It would not address currently pending Roundup cases that are consolidated in a federal court proceeding.
     
The case is King v. Monsanto, City of St. Louis Circuit Court, No. 2622-CC00325
For Bayer: Elaine Golin, Jeffrey ⁠Wintner and ​Carrie Reilly of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz; Daniel Nelson and Derek Kraft of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher ​LLP; James Bennet of Dowd Bennett
Class counsel: Seeger Weiss; Motley Rice; Williams Hart & Boundas; Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel; The Holland Law Firm; Ketchmark & McCreight.
For objecting plaintiffs: Ashley Keller of Keller Postman LLC and R. Prescott Sifton of Frazer PLC.
     
Read more:
What does Bayer's US Supreme Court win mean for ​the thousands of Roundup lawsuits?US Supreme Court scales back Roundup cancer suits in win for Bayer
Bayer proposes $7.25 billion plan to settle Roundup cancer cases
     

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth)