WILMINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Bayer has won another case in the legal disputes over the alleged cancer risks of glyphosate-based weed killers in the United States. A jury in the Kline case in Philadelphia ruled in favor of the agrochemical and pharmaceutical company, a company spokesman said on Tuesday evening. In addition, the plaintiff in another case had voluntarily withdrawn a lawsuit before the highest court in the state of California.

Bayer had recently won the majority of the glyphosate lawsuits. However, high fines in the lost cases made headlines. This was another reason why the Kline case was in the spotlight, as Bayer lost a case in Philadelphia at the end of January in which the jury ordered the company to pay USD 2.2 billion. In the USA, however, such high sums are often significantly reduced in appeal proceedings.

The wave of glyphosate lawsuits has already cost Bayer 13 billion euros, explained CFO Wolfgang Nickl at the Capital Markets Day on Tuesday. Around 54,000 cases were still open at the end of January. The provisions amounted to 6.3 billion dollars (5.7 billion euros) at the end of 2023.

Bayer CEO Bill Anderson also announced new approaches to dealing with the issue at the Capital Markets Day on Tuesday, albeit without being specific. On Monday, the "Financial Times" reported that Bayer was lobbying for legal changes in states in the USA. The aim is to reaffirm the precedence of federal law over state law in the labeling of weed killers such as Roundup.

The issue has long been central. Bayer argues that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as the federal authority, has determined that Roundup is not carcinogenic and approved the product label accordingly without a warning. Therefore, federal law also prevents claims for damages in individual US states due to allegedly inadequate warnings of cancer risks./mis/jha/