Bayer has won a spectacular victory in a glyphosate case before the Philadelphia Court of Appeals in the United States. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, thousands of individual lawsuits against the manufacturer will be dismissed, we read in Agrarheute.
A groundbreaking verdict
On August 15, a U.S. federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that Bayer AG, based in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, did not have to put a warning about possible cancer risks on its flagship herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate. The judges said the manufacturer should have followed labeling requirements imposed by the federal government, not the state of Pennsylvania.
The ruling could be a watershed for Bayer, since a federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled the opposite in February. Thousands of individual lawsuits against the company are based on the allegation that the manufacturer failed to adequately warn buyers about the dangers of glyphosate.
Waiting for justification
The case can only be ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, but whether and when it will address the Roundup herbicide label issue remains an open question. The Supreme Court judge would have to consider the arguments from Philadelphia, however. The detailed reasons for the ruling by the Philadelphia Court of Appeals are expected to be released in the coming months.
Optimism on the stock market
Roundup is the flagship product of Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in June 2018. At the time, the company had earmarked about $16 billion to deal with the fallout from glyphosate lawsuits. The ruling by the Philadelphia appeals court increases the likelihood that those funds will actually be enough and the group will not face new costs in additional lawsuits.
So far, the stock exchange has reacted to the favorable judgment for Bayer. The price of Bayer AG shares on the Xetra stock exchange increased by almost 10 percent from Thursday, August 15 to Friday, August 16, from 26 to over 28 euros.
Read more
Has Bayer found an alternative to glyphosate? 
Read more
Bayer's Corn and Grain Protection Proposals: Innovation Hub Opens 
