Bayer shares surged as much as 17% Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to throw out a $1.25 million jury verdict against the company, shielding it from tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming its Roundup herbicide should have carried a cancer warning label. The majority opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, held that federal law requires uniform pesticide labels and that the state law failure-to-warn claim would impose a cancer warning different from the label approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. The decision is expected to help end a decade-long flood of litigation that has cost Bayer more than $10 billion, and the company said it should result in the dismissal of current warning-based claims and bar future failure-to-warn claims. Bayer stock rose as much as 17% in Frankfurt, marking the biggest intraday gain since March 2003, before trading was halted for volatility.
Bayer AG NASupreme Court ruling shields Bayer from Roundup failure-to-warn lawsuits, ending major litigation risk.