Roundup Lawsuit Timeline: From IARC's 2015 Classification to the Active Federal MDL

2015 and 2016: a hazard classification and a federal coordination

In March 2015, IARC's working group classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans, Group 2A; the full monograph followed. The group found limited evidence in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and sufficient evidence in experimental animals. IARC evaluates carcinogenic hazard—whether an agent can cause cancer under some circumstances—not the risk from each labeled exposure pattern or the cause of one person's lymphoma.

Federal complaints multiplied, and on October 3, 2016, JPML centralized actions alleging that exposure to Monsanto's glyphosate-based Roundup products caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that warnings were inadequate. MDL 2741 went to Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California. Centralization coordinated discovery and pretrial rulings. It did not absorb every state case or decide the scientific dispute.

2017 through 2019: expert evidence reaches a jury

The federal court conducted extensive Rule 702 proceedings over epidemiology, toxicology, exposure, and causation. In 2018, the updated Agricultural Health Study reported no statistically significant association between glyphosate use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma overall among licensed pesticide applicators. Other analyses, including a 2019 meta-analysis using highest-exposure groups, reported an increased relative risk. Differences in design, exposure assessment, latency, and included studies remain central to the disagreement.

Edwin Hardeman's case became the first federal bellwether in 2019. The court phased trial so jurors first considered causation and then liability and damages. They found Roundup was a substantial factor in his NHL and later returned liability findings and damages, which were reduced under legal limits and reviewed on appeal. The verdict tested one plaintiff's evidence; it did not establish a binding courtwide presumption or an average value.

2020: settlement announcements do not close the MDL

Bayer announced agreements intended to resolve substantial inventories of existing Roundup claims. Those private arrangements were consequential but did not create a public fund open to every user or automatically dismiss every federal and state action. Inventory settlements can depend on representation, product and exposure evidence, diagnosis, releases, liens, and private criteria. Public aggregate figures cannot be divided by a claim count to predict an individual's gross or net payment.

A separate proposed framework for future claims drew judicial scrutiny and was withdrawn. The distinction matters: agreements resolving defined existing inventories are not the same as a court-approved class program for people who may be diagnosed later. The federal MDL continued to manage unresolved cases, and state courts continued on independent schedules. 'Global settlement' became common shorthand even though no single agreement ended the national litigation.

2021 through 2024: appellate and regulatory tracks continue

Hardeman's judgment survived federal appellate review, and the Supreme Court declined review in 2022. That left the case result intact without turning it into a national scientific rule. Other state trials produced plaintiff and defense outcomes on different records. Verdicts can also be reduced, reversed, retried, or resolved, so a headline amount is not necessarily a final payment.

EPA's regulatory track also moved. The agency issued a 2020 interim registration-review decision stating that glyphosate was not likely to be carcinogenic to humans and identifying no human-health risks of concern when used according to label. In 2022, after the Ninth Circuit vacated the human-health portion and remanded ecological issues, EPA withdrew the interim decision and continued work toward an updated assessment. Withdrawal did not itself adopt IARC's classification or cancel glyphosate registrations.

2025 and 2026: an active docket, not a finished history

The federal inventory remained substantial. JPML reported 4,425 pending and 5,100 historical actions on July 1, 2025. On July 1, 2026, it reported 3,920 pending and 5,308 historical. The pending decline and historical increase show why a single net number cannot reveal how many actions were newly filed, dismissed, remanded, or resolved. State cases are not in either figure.

As of July 10, 2026, EPA's registration review remained ongoing and the federal MDL remained active. The responsible forward watchlist includes official expert or dispositive rulings, remand and trial orders, appellate decisions, EPA's updated analysis, and settlements actually documented for defined groups. None of those sources currently supplies a universal filing deadline, eligibility rule, or payout table. Roundup's history is best understood as parallel scientific, regulatory, federal, state, and private-resolution tracks—not one finished class action.

Reader questions

Frequently asked questions