By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Monday refused to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that Bayer AG’s Roundup weedkiller caused cancer, the latest setback in the company’s efforts to fend off thousands of similar lawsuits carrying potentially billions of dollars in damages.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bayer’s argument that federal regulators’ approval of Roundup shielded the company from being sued under state law for failing to warn consumers of the product’s risks. Several other appeals courts had previously reached the same conclusion in similar lawsuits.
Bayer had hoped that the 11th Circuit would break with other courts on the issue, making it more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court would resolve it through a nationwide ruling. Bayer has said that it hopes a favorable Supreme Court ruling could limit its liability from the Roundup-related litigation.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Josie Kao)
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