A Pennsylvania groundskeeper is set to become a billionaire after a court found Bayer's weed killer Roundup caused his blood cancer.
The consumer giant will be forced to pay $2.25billion to John McKivison, 49, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020, which he and attorneys successfully argued was a result of using Roundup for two decades.
The sum — broken down as $2bn in punitive damages and $250 million in compensatory damages — is thought to be one of the biggest ever payouts to an individual for company negligence.
Bayer said it plans to appeal the ruling and insists its product is not a carcinogen, refuting a World Health Organization report that said otherwise.
But the company has already settled past disputes involving its product’s links with the cancer totaling more than $10 billion.
