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Bill Anderson<\/p>\nAfter years of legal setbacks that have cost billions of dollars over its top-selling Roundup weedkiller, Bayer AG finally got a resounding win in the biggest tribunal of all.<\/p>\n
The US Supreme Court threw out a jury verdict won by a Missouri man who blamed Roundup for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Backing Bayer\u2019s appeal, the court said Thursday consumers can\u2019t sue Bayer for the absence of a cancer warning on its label, given that federal regulators concluded a cautionary statement wasn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n
Bayer\u2019s shares closed up nearly 19% Thursday, the most since 2003, as investors hailed a decision that could stem the tide of big-dollar verdicts, even if it doesn\u2019t completely solve the company\u2019s Roundup problem. They were down as much as 1.9% in early trading in Frankfurt on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally common sense has prevailed as regulators, who are in tune with the technical and scientific issues, are in a better position to determine what is safe than juries,\u201d said David Herro, a portfolio manager at Harris Associates, which is one of Bayer\u2019s five biggest shareholders.<\/p>\n
Litigation over Roundup had wiped out more than $60 billion in market value since Bayer inherited the world\u2019s most widely-used weedkiller through its purchase of agrochemical producer Monsanto in 2018. Once an icon of German industry, Bayer has struggled to get a grip on the crisis through successive management regimes.<\/p>\n
Problems with Bayer\u2019s crop-science division have also weighed on the company\u2019s ability to boost the performance of its other units, including the pharmaceutical business. Current Chief Executive Officer Bill Anderson\u2019s turnaround plan has focused on resolving the conglomerate\u2019s legal woes while also cutting bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Bill Anderson<\/p>\n
The stakes are also high for Anderson personally. The American took the helm of Bayer in mid-2023, tasked with bringing a close to the protracted litigation that\u2019s already cost the company more than $10 billion. He has vowed to largely contain the situation by the end of 2026. Shareholders made clear that his ability to succeed will weigh heavily on how they judge his future at the company.<\/p>\n
Anderson welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, saying it \u201cbrings overdue justice on an issue that should have been clarified much earlier.\u201d He also acknowledged that \u201cthe toll to get here has been massive\u201d and that the litigation has \u201cimpacted public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis litigation has cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars that could have gone toward new medicines or new seeds,\u201d he wrote in a post<\/a> on social media. \u201cIt should never happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n While the Supreme Court decision is a big win for Bayer, Anderson has yet to secure final approval for his $7.25 billion settlement proposal. His predecessor, Werner Baumann, in 2020 unveiled a sweeping proposal that resolved many existing claims, but a federal judge later rejected a key element aimed at handling future claims, leaving Bayer exposed to more lawsuits and billion-dollar verdicts.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court victory is a \u201csignificant milestone\u201d for Bayer, according to Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at Union Investment, a shareholder.<\/p>\n Current Lawsuits<\/p>\n While the ruling will make it more difficult for consumers to win Roundup cases, it won\u2019t knock out the thousands of current lawsuits over the weedkiller or affect future lawsuits, US legal experts say.<\/p>\n The latest ruling is \u201cnot dispositive of any pending or future pesticide claims against any manufacturer, including Monsanto,\u201d said Thomas Kline, a Philadelphia-based plaintiffs\u2019 lawyer who won a $2.25 billion<\/a> Roundup verdict against Bayer in January 2024. That verdict was later reduced and settled for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n Roundup cases can proceed on other grounds, including that the weedkiller was defectively designed and Bayer was negligent in its development and marketing, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who teaches about mass-tort cases.<\/p>\n \u201cJuries can still hand down billion-dollar verdicts against Bayer on grounds other than failure-to-warn,\u201d Tobias said. \u201cThis is not the silver bullet Bayer was looking for to end all Roundup litigation.\u201d Tobias also noted the Supreme Court specifically ruled in 2005 that claims other than failure to warn specifically weren\u2019t preempted by federal law.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Roundup-protests-Bloomberg-580x387.jpg\")
Demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court in Washington in April.<\/p>\n