A California Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s finding that Monsanto had the strict liability duty to warn of potential risks and side effects of its Roundup herbicides. It further affirmed that FIFRA does not...more
What happens when an international research agency decides that the most widely used herbicide in the world may cause cancer? Well, it depends. Are you asking a judge? Or jurors?...more
In Johnson v. Monsanto Company (No. A155940, A156706, filed 7/20/2020), Plaintiff Dewayne Johnson (“Plaintiff”) sued Monsanto Company (“Monsanto”) when he was diagnosed with cancer which he alleged was the result of his use...more
Leave it to corporations, even with the pressure of the civil justice system, to figure billions of ways to never say they are sorry — and to leave consumers hanging about problematic products and practices....more
Ninth Circuit considers whether federal law takes precedence over California statute requiring warnings about chemicals. Hardeman v. Monsanto, pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, raises issues as to whether a...more
A proposed class action filed in federal court in California on Tuesday accuses Google of “surreptitiously amass[ing] billions of bits of information—every day—about internet users even if they opt out of sharing their...more
Unable to reach a last-minute deal with investors, rental car mainstay Hertz filed for bankruptcy late Friday night, doing so “without a clear plan with creditors in place—a rare move for a company of its size.” Though, like...more
While there’s plenty of other business afoot in D.C. these days, it also happens to have been a pretty big week for trade deals. A day after Phase One with China was inked, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a revised...more
Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide perhaps best known for being the active ingredient in the blockbuster weed killer Roundup®. As many readers are probably aware, Roundup® is currently the subject of both state and...more
The European Central Bank announced on Thursday that is likely to revive the quantitative easing program aimed at “pump[ing] money into the region’s financial system,” a major reversal from just 6 months ago, when the ECB...more
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is the latest prominent government official to express concerns about Facebook’s coming Libra launch. Speaking at a briefing yesterday, Mnuchin focused on national security issues related to...more
That massive thud? That would be the other shoe dropping in the form of Chinese counter tariffs on another $60 billion in US goods in response to the White House’s trade moves last week....more
Carlos Ghosn, the onetime “savior” of Nissan, faced another indignity while again behind bars in Japan—the automaker officially removed the former chair from the board altogether....more
Although lawsuits can result in needed financial support and welcome recognition of harms suffered by patients seeking medical services, the civil justice system has its limits. They showed in cases in the news in which...more
Can you be forced to slap language on a product you sell that not only do you not agree with but which can be false or misleading – and scare your customers? In California the answer is yes. But that may be finally...more
Monsanto’s (and, in turn, Bayer AG’s) terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in court over its Roundup products’ links to cancer continued yesterday, as a jury awarded $80 million to the California man who it had already...more
The US and China have scheduled two more rounds of high-level trade talks with hopes for an agreement between the economic superpowers by late April, even as China has begun to push back against some of the US’s major...more
Recently, a jury in San Francisco was asked to determine whether “Roundup,” the world’s most popular and widely used herbicide, causes cancer - a question debated in hundreds of studies by oncologists, clinicians, chemists...more
The $289 million judgment from a California jury against Monsanto earlier this week relating to its Roundup product is significant both from a legal and a policy standpoint. From a legal perspective, the simple fact that...more
On June 12, 2018, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California denied the California Attorney General’s request for the court to reconsider its decision in February that California cannot require...more
More than a half century ago, the World Health Assembly established the International Agency for Research on Cancer as the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization. Although headquartered in Lyon, France,...more
February was a busy month in the Proposition 65 world with two developments that may impact businesses that manufacture or sell processed meat or chocolate products. In addition, the United States District Court for the...more
California Proposition 65 litigation over acrylamide in food has been heating up lately, receiving national news coverage in anticipation of a ruling in a fiercely contested case involving exposure to acrylamide in coffee. ...more