Georgia has become the second U.S. state to pass a law that could limit residents’ ability to file Roundup lawsuits after a similar law was signed in North Dakota last month.
The new legislation, which was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp on Friday, says that manufacturers of pesticides like Roundup cannot be held liable for failing to warn customers of health risks beyond the scope of what is required by the Environmental Protection Agency.
This could essentially eliminate the effectiveness of claims that are central to thousands of Roundup lawsuits, which claim the popular weed killer is tied to the development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Roundup lawsuits generally rely on state failure-to-warn laws, claiming that manufacturer Monsanto failed to alert its customers of a cancer risk tied to its product.
But the new Georgia law says that pesticide manufacturers are not liable for anything beyond the scope of federal law. Since the EPA-approved Roundup label does not include a cancer warning, the new law could shield the makers of the weed killer from those claims.
This comes less than two months after a Georgia jury awarded a staggering $2.1 billion to a man who claimed he developed cancer after using Roundup for decades.
According to the Associated Press, the new law doesn’t take effect until January 2026 and will not impact that verdict or other existing cases.
Bayer Continues Push to End Roundup Litigation
Bayer, which purchased Roundup manufacturer Monsanto in 2018, has continued its efforts to move past the litigation through multiple avenues.
One of those strategies has been encouraging state laws to help shield it from more lawsuits. The company has been pushing for this legislation to be passed across the country.
While laws have now been signed in North Dakota and Georgia, similar legislation has seen less success in other key states.
Last month, a similar bill progressing in Iowa appeared unlikely to move forward when the Iowa House of Representatives decided against acting on it. Pesticide-shielding bills have also been defeated in Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi and other states.
Bayer is also hoping for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the ongoing Roundup litigation and the key issue of federal preemption. The company asked the Supreme Court to review a Roundup case in April. If the Court chooses to take up the case, a decision could come in the 2025-26 session.
Tens of thousands of Roundup lawsuits remain active in both state and federal courts.