Hundreds reject Syngenta herbicide settlements

More than 900 plaintiffs have rejected Syngenta’s settlement offers, keeping a major US paraquat dispute alive more than a year after the Swiss agricultural group sought to resolve it. The plaintiffs say exposure to the herbicide caused Parkinson’s disease. Their refusals could send individual cases back to courts across the United States for trial.

The dispute follows Syngenta’s 2025 agreement to settle claims brought by 8,488 people in federal multidistrict litigation. At least three law firms have reported refusal rates of 80% or higher among their clients. Swissinfo estimates that the number of hold-outs across the litigation exceeds 900, although no official figure has been released for the number of plaintiffs who accepted the offers.

The timing matters for Syngenta, whose global headquarters are in Basel. The company reported paying around $300 million, equivalent to CHF 248 million, for legal and product liabilities during the first six months of 2026. Syngenta also disclosed a confidential June agreement covering “a number of pending product liability claims”, without identifying the cases or the amount involved.

The company maintains that the claims lack merit and says any settlements do not amount to an admission of liability.

Syngenta says 10,911 lawsuits have been filed since 2017, creating one of the largest product liability battles facing the Basel-based company. Most of those cases, 8,488, entered a federal multidistrict litigation, or MDL, where a single judge coordinates common pretrial work.

An MDL is not a class action. Each personal injury claim remains legally separate because plaintiffs have different medical histories, exposure allegations and circumstances. The process groups cases for evidence gathering and other shared proceedings, while preserving the possibility of individual trials in the plaintiffs’ home courts.

According to Settlement Record, 6,666 MDL cases remained pending. The figures show why settlement administration is a complex legal and financial exercise. A global agreement can create a mechanism for resolving thousands of claims, while individual plaintiffs still retain decisions about whether the proposed terms meet their circumstances.

In February 2026, the parties jointly asked the court to approve a Qualified Settlement Fund. The court-supervised account would hold settlement money and distribute payments after claimant eligibility is confirmed. The fund does not itself resolve the disagreement with plaintiffs who reject the offers. Those cases may require further negotiations, additional court supervision or individual proceedings.

The settlement dispute turns on individual decisions, not a single vote by all plaintiffs. People represented by different law firms may assess the offers differently, based on their medical records, alleged exposure, prognosis and expectations for a trial.

The court overseeing the MDL in the Southern District of Illinois took steps in April to address the hold-outs. It ordered a special master to meet with plaintiffs who had not accepted, or with their lawyers, to confirm that they understood the consequences of refusing to participate. The available report does not provide the outcome of those meetings or disclose the settlement terms.

That limited public information makes the refusal rate significant but incomplete. A figure of 80% or higher among clients at three firms does not establish the refusal rate across all 8,488 cases. Swissinfo’s estimate of more than 900 rejected offers also remains separate from the number of claims that have been formally resolved.

Syngenta has not accepted the allegations that paraquat caused the plaintiffs’ disease. Its interim report says the company entered settlements to bring claims to an end and that the agreements do not acknowledge liability. Further court filings and case administration will determine how many hold-outs proceed toward individual trials.