A California state judge has issued preliminary findings against the August jury decision to award €255m in damages to a Roundup user who alleged the glyphosate-based herbicide caused him to develop cancer, according to US media reports.

A tentative ruling by Superior Court Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos was quoted as saying that she was considering ordering a new trial because of "insufficiency of the evidence" that led jurors to award punitive damages for former groundskeeper Dewayne Lee Johnson's lymphoma.

Appeal

Johnson took the case against Roundup's manufacturer Monsanto, which appealed the initial jury verdict. Monsanto has since then been taken over by German-based Bayer.

If confirmed, the ruling could have an impact on the other 8,000 litigations being prepared by patients accusing the firm of causing their cancers.

Bayer's chief executive Werner Baumann has vowed to "vigorously defend this case and also the cases that are up and coming".

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A US judge has indicated that a re-trial was likely after a jury awarded over €250m in damages against the manufacturer of Roundup herbicide.