Bayer considering stopping sales of glyphosate to private users: newspaper

[January 30, 2020]  BERLIN (Reuters) - Bayer <BAYGN.DE> is considering stopping sales of the weedkiller glyphosate to private users who apply it in their gardens, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing financial and corporate sources.

 A man uses a Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller spray containing glyphosate in a garden in Bordeaux, France, June 1, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

The business daily said the move was part of ongoing talks with tens of thousands of plaintiffs in the United States about an out-of-court settlement. The plaintiffs blame Bayer's glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer.

Bayer was not immediately available for comment.

Court-appointed mediator Ken Feinberg, who leads the settlement discussions, has put the number of Roundup cancer claimants at more than 75,000 while Bayer has said the claims it has been served with in court were below 50,000.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin in Berlin and Sabine Wollrab in Frankfurt; Editing by Riham Alkousaa)

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