Weitz and Luxenberg Helps Win $10.9 Billion Roundup Settlement for 125,000 Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Claimants

Roundup, the glyphosate-based herbicide that became the best-selling weed killer in the world, was used by farmers, landscapers, maintenance workers, and homeowners for decades. Many of them were never told that the active ingredient, glyphosate, had been classified as a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015. Thousands went on to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.

Weitz and Luxenberg was the first law firm to file suit against Monsanto over Roundup-linked non-Hodgkin lymphoma, doing so in the fall of 2015. That early filing positioned the firm at the center of what would become one of the largest product-liability litigations in American history. Cases from across the country were consolidated into a federal multidistrict litigation, In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2741, before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California. Robin Greenwald, who chairs the firm's environmental toxic torts and consumer protection litigation group, served as co-lead counsel throughout the proceedings.

The litigation focused on a core allegation: Monsanto had known for years that glyphosate posed cancer risks and had failed to warn users or place adequate cautions on its product labels. Plaintiffs presented internal Monsanto documents and scientific testimony to support those claims. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018 and inherited the litigation along with it, maintained that the science showed Roundup does not cause cancer, but by mid-2020 the company had agreed to resolve the matter.

In June 2020, Bayer announced a settlement of $10.1 billion to $10.9 billion to resolve approximately 125,000 pending claims, with an additional $1.25 billion set aside to address future claims from people not yet diagnosed. The agreement was described at the time as one of the largest mass-tort settlements in history.

Greenwald said after the announcement: 'It has been a long journey, but we are very pleased that we have achieved justice for the tens of thousands of people who, through no fault of their own, are suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using a product Monsanto assured them was safe.' Perry Weitz, a named partner at the firm, echoed that the settlement was the best path to ensuring victims received meaningful compensation given the volume of pending cases.