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-Short Attention Span Theater-
American Judge Says He Is "Tentatively Inclined" To Reject Bayer's Monsanto Settlement
2020-07-07
[ZeroHedge] As the EU's antitrust regulator announces another round of sweeping antitrust investigations into the big US tech behemoths. an American judge is apparently making noises about throwing out a major settlement involving German multinational pharma conglomerate Bayer. According to the settlement, which we reported on a few weeks ago when it was first announced, Bayer had agreed to pay $10 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits brought against it over its purchase of Monsanto, the American agrichemical giant that's best known for producing Roundup weed killer.

The lawsuits stemmed from evidence that glyphosate, one of the primary ingredients of Monsanto's Roundup, is actually carcinogenic. Which means that by marketing Roundup into ubiquity, even pairing it with genetically modified crop seeds allowing farmers to spray the stuff then simply forget about it since it wouldn't harm the crops.

A landmark California Court ruling handed down in 2017 found Bayer liable for the plaintiffs' cancers, since it now owned Monsanto. The mountain of litigation has weighed on Bayer's share price ever since, making the Monsanto acquisition one of the biggest blunders in the history of the storied German firm. The two sides have been in negotiations virtually ever since, until two weeks ago, when a majority of the plaintiffs agreed to a $10 billion settlement....

However, a minority of plaintiffs and their lawyers held out for a better deal, arguing that the $10BN settlement would preclude other victims from seeking compensation in the future. And now, apparently, a US judge agrees, and in an opinion filed on Monday, he is hinting at the possibility of striking down the proposed settlement, and forcing the two sides to start afresh.

....During the next round of talks, the plaintiffs would have much more leverage over Bayer, and would likely be able to negotiate a much more generous settlement.

That's bad news for Bayer shareholders, as one analyst explained to Bloomberg.

The judge’s filing reinforces concerns from investors that Bayer’s Roundup deal isn’t enough to get it beyond the mountain of litigation, Alistair Campbell, an analyst at Liberum Capital, said in a note. While Bayer’s market valuation is "deeply discounted" right now, that situation probably won’t change until the company can convince the market that it’s finally resolved the Roundup legal headache.

It's also a long-overdue move by an American court to hold a European company accountable for alleged abuses perpetrated in the US, after the EU has spent so much time nitpicking every little violation committed by Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet.
This should not be a game of tit-for-tat. The courts need to follow the law--on both sides of the pond.

Yahoo story here
Related:
Bayer: 2020-06-28 BuzzFeed "Reporter" Who Got [ZH] Banned On Twitter, Fired For Plagiarism
Bayer: 2020-06-23 Bayer Pays $10BN To Settle Thousands Of Monsanto Glyphosate Lawsuits
Bayer: 2020-04-23 Coronavirus Lockdown and What You Are Not Being Told
Posted by:Clem

#1  The lawsuits stemmed from evidence that glyphosate, one of the primary ingredients of Monsanto's Roundup, is actually carcinogenic.

There is evidence of this?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-07-07 09:56  

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