A Missouri appellate court has upheld a $611 million judgment against Bayer, affirming that its Roundup weedkiller caused cancer in three plaintiffs. This decision maintains the original jury verdict from November 2023, which found Bayer liable for negligence, selling a defective product, and failing to warn consumers about the risks associated with Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate. Initially, the jury awarded $1.6 billion, but the amount was reduced to $611 million by Judge Daniel Green to comply with U.S. Supreme Court guidelines limiting punitive damages to a multiple of compensatory damages.

Bayer has announced plans to appeal the decision, arguing that the trial court allowed inadmissible and prejudicial testimony that influenced the jury’s decision. The company continues to assert that Roundup is safe, citing assessments from the Environmental Protection Agency and other health regulators.

This case is part of a broader legal challenge for Bayer, which faces approximately 67,000 lawsuits alleging that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The company has already paid over $10 billion in settlements and jury awards and has set aside an additional $6 billion for future litigation. Efforts to pass legislation in Missouri to shield Bayer from such lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.

The upheld verdict adds to the financial and legal pressures on Bayer, which is reportedly considering discontinuing Roundup amid mounting litigation costs.