Bayer Gets Relief as $2 Billion Verdict Slashed in Roundup Case

Bayer AG persuaded a judge to reduce a jury verdict to $86.7 million from more than $2 billion in the most recent trial over its Roundup weedkiller.

While there was no question the award, the largest in the U.S. this year, would be slashed, the decision gives some relief to the German health and agricultural giant that’s battling thousands of cases claiming the product causes cancer.

Jurors in state court in Oakland, California, arrived at the original figure in May after concluding the herbicide caused Alva and Alberta Pilliod’s cancer. The jury found that punishment damages were warranted because Monsanto, ...