As most already know, in what may go down as the worst acquisition in the history of business, Bayer bought Monsanto last year for $63 billion. While Monsanto has become Bayer’s biggest mistake, you’ve got to hand it to Monsanto for knowing when to sell. Since the buyout, Bayer has been embroiled in litigation, with plaintiffs winning lawsuits showing that glyphosate likely caused their cancer.
Mom’s Across America reported that on January 18:
Elizabeth Desiree of Washington state posted on Facebook that she just got a call from an employee at Costco and he told her that Costco would no longer be selling Roundup. She had written him a letter and he was calling her back. I was excited but reserved my excitement. There is so much fake news these days. I called the headquarters, and after two days of messages and calls, I did finally confirm with three people that Costco was not ordering Roundup or any glyphosate-based herbicides for the incoming spring shipments. They would not be selling it in any stores, all across America. This is HUGE! How fantastic! One employee mentioned that they had looked into organic alternatives first and were happy with the results. More than one employee mentioned the lawsuit (Johnson V Monsanto) for part of the reasoning. They said they just felt like it was the right thing to do.
Mom’s Across America
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Costco has not released a statement. But the company has been a progressive leader in many respects. They have been known for taking better care of their employees and their environmental initiatives. In 2014 Huffington Post article, Costco was ranked second to Google on employee satisfaction. And they are one of the largest sellers in the country of organic foods, and they support farmers that are transitioning to organic growing practices.
Considering the amount of food Costco sells, this should amount to a considerable loss in revenue for the makers of RoundUp, not to mention other stores that will likely follow suit.
Two weeks ago a California jury awards two plaintiffs $2.055 billion dollars in damages. The jury awarded $2 billion in punitive damages and $55 million in compensatory damages. This is Bayer’s third loss in court from lawsuits over glyphosate. The first judgment was reported in August of 2018, where judges awarded $289 million in damages (later reduced to $78 million). The second happened in March of this year, where a San Francisco jury found in favor of plaintiff Edwin Hardeman to the tune of $80 million in damages.
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The damages award will probably be reduced thanks to U.S. Supreme Court rulings that limit the punitive to compensatory damages ratio at 9:1.
Bayer is now looking forward to more than 13,400 pending U.S. lawsuits seeking damages from glyphosate use, and that number is likely to keep rising for some time.
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