Bayer’s $7.25 billion bid for closure

05:01 |

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. Will Bayer's $7.25 billion Roundup settlement bring legal closure? Plus, California and the Trump administration will clash in court over EV rules; the Teamsters will ask a federal judge to block UPS from offering buyouts to union-represented drivers; and a jury is expected to begin deliberating in Tom Goldstein's tax crimes trial. How much does it cost to be an Olympian? (A lot). Thursday has arrived, let's dive in.

Will Bayer's $7.25 billion Roundup settlement bring legal closure?

REUTERS/Mike Blake

Bayer's Monsanto unit announced a $7.25 billion proposed nationwide class settlement aimed at resolving both current and future claims that its Roundup weedkiller caused cancer, billing it as a long‑awaited path toward ending years of litigation. But will it actually deliver the legal certainty Bayer needs?

The 21-year claims program is designed to sweep in future cancer claims and offer payouts to people who used Roundup before February 17, 2026, and develop cancer in the future. The company did not remove glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup that plaintiffs allege is carcinogenic, from its residential products until 2023.
It's not clear yet how many plaintiffs firms support the deal. Bayer can terminate the deal if too few firms sign on, but the company won't say how many firms can opt out before the agreement is canceled.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also in play. Bayer has a case before the court scheduled for an April 27 oral argument that's a key part of the company's effort to beat these claims. The court will decide whether Bayer can be sued under state law for failing to warn about the alleged cancer risks associated with Roundup, when federal regulations do not require a warning label on the product.
Read more about the proposed settlement here.

Coming up today

Environment: U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland will hear arguments in a lawsuit that could decide the fate of California's vehicle-emissions rules, which would have required 100% of all new vehicles to be electric by 2035. Congress last year struck down the California regulations, a move the state is challenging. Thursday's hearing is on the Trump administration's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Labor: Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston will consider whether to temporarily block UPS from offering a new round of buyout packages to its drivers through a workforce-cutting program opposed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.
Crypto: Manpreet Kohli, the chief executive of cryptocurrency company Saitana, will urge U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston to dismiss an indictment accusing him of manipulating trading of its tokens and secretly selling them, enabling his firm at one point to obtain a market value of $7.5 billion.
Abortion: A Texas appeals court will hear arguments in a civil lawsuit brought by the state against Maria Rojas, a midwife accused of providing abortions in violation of the state's near-total abortion ban. The lower court issued an injunction, shutting down the three clinics where she provided maternal healthcare.
Securities: The Arizona Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether juryless trials before the state's securities regulator is constitutional. The lower court found that it was.
Criminal: A final pretrial conference is scheduled before an Iranian-born engineer is slated to face trial on charges related to a deadly drone attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan carried out by Iran-backed militants in 2024. Mahdi Sadeghi, who worked at the semiconductor company Analog Devices, is charged in Boston with engaging in a scheme to violate U.S. export control and sanctions laws.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

President Trump nominated a lawyer who was part of his legal team in a landmark presidential immunity case before the U.S. Supreme Court, to serve as a judge on the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit. Read more about the nomination here.
Erin Hawley, a top attorney in the legal fight to restrict access to the abortion pill drug known as mifepristone, joined conservative law firm Lex Politica as chair of its U.S. Supreme Court and appellate litigation practice.

$2,500

That's how much the 5th Circuit ordered an attorney to pay for submitting briefs containing AI-hallucinated case citations. Imposing the sanction, a three-judge panel lamented that the problem "shows no signs of abating." Read the order here.

"Not a single tax return signed by Mr. Goldstein under penalty of perjury is correct -- not one."

—Prosecutor Sean Beaty urging a jury to find prominent U.S. Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein guilty of tax and financial crimes, as a lengthy trial wrapped up over Goldstein's accounting of millions of dollars he won and lost in his double life as a high-stakes poker player. Goldstein pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion. Jury deliberations are expected to begin today. Read more about closing arguments here.

In the courts

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan rejected Live Nation's bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the federal government and many U.S. states accusing the company of violating antitrust law by trying to dominate the live concert industry and inflate prices. Read the order.
A unanimous 4th Circuit panel upheld the U.S. military's longstanding policy banning people with HIV from enlisting, rejecting claims that advances in medical treatment made it unreasonable. Read the opinion.
A U.S. civil rights agency has accused a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products of sex discrimination for holding an employee networking event that excluded men. Read the complaint.
The BBC said in a filing in Miami federal court that it intends to argue that President Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against it should be dismissed because he failed to state successful claims for defamation and for a violation of a Florida unfair trade practices law. Read the filing.
California, Colorado and Washington are suing the federal government to force it to pay out grants approved by Congress for clean energy projects. Find out more.
A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the Trump administration in the D.C. Circuit over its decision to revoke the scientific finding that forms the basis of U.S. climate regulations. Read the complaint.
A trio of Hermès shoppers asked the 9th Circuit to reinstate their lawsuit accusing the French luxury house of illegally forcing buyers to spend thousands of dollars on its products before they can purchase one of its famed Birkin handbags. Read the filing.
Ericsson sued Acer in Delaware federal court, seeking a declaration that the Swedish telecommunications company does not infringe Acer patents related to 4G and 5G wireless standards. Read the complaint.

Attorney Analysis

Sidley's Jaime Jones, Meena Datta and Emily Schneider examine enforcement risks to watch for in drug pricing and Medicaid rebate reporting. Read today's Attorney Analysis.

Additional writing by Namrata Arora.

Contact

Caitlin Tremblay

caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com

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