Manufacturer of chemicals and consumer goods 3M announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $6 billion to resolve claims filed by U.S. service members that the company’s defective earplugs caused them to lose their hearing or suffer other severe ailments.
Payments for the settlement, which consists of $5 billion in cash and $1 billion in 3M stock, will be made over the course of 2029.
Aearo Technologies, a business that 3M bought in 2008, and 3M have both been sued by hundreds of thousands of veterans and active duty service personnel for its Combat Arms Earplugs.
According to Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis, & Overholtz PLLC, one of the law firms representing plaintiffs, the service members claimed that a flawed design allowed the products, which were meant to protect ears from close-range firearms and other loud noises, to loosen slightly and allow hearing damage.
The Florida-based legal firm states that 3M previously agreed to pay $9.1 million to resolve a complaint on behalf of the government alleging the business willfully provided faulty earplugs to the U.S. military in an online description of the action. Additionally, the company stated that since 2019, 3M has lost 10 of the 16 claims that have gone to trial, giving plaintiffs millions of dollars to date.
The settlement reached on Tuesday “represents a tremendous victory for the thousands of men and women who bravely served our country and returned home with life-altering hearing injuries,” plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a statement.
The deal, which covers all claims in the multidistrict litigation in Florida, coordinated state court litigation in Minnesota, and possible future claims, was not an admission of culpability, according to 3M’s statement on Tuesday.
“The products at issue in this litigation are safe and effective when used properly,” the company wrote. “3M is prepared to continue to defend itself in the litigation if certain agreed terms of the settlement agreement are not fulfilled.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, 3M has previously attempted to limit its liability to the earplug litigation through bankruptcy court. Aearo filed for bankruptcy in 2022 as a separate business, taking liability for claims; however, the filing was later rejected in a bankruptcy court in the United States.
In addition to the earplug case, 3M agreed in June to pay at least $10.3 billion to resolve claims that numerous U.S. public drinking water systems were contaminated with potentially dangerous substances. With this agreement, water suppliers will get compensation for pollution caused by per- and polyfluorinated compounds, sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals.”
The settlement amount might total $12.5 billion, although the agreement hasn’t been formalized yet. 22 attorneys general urged a federal court to reject the proposed settlement last month, arguing that it let 3M off too easily and that it didn’t give individual water suppliers enough time to decide how much money they would receive.
In some cases, they claimed, the deal could shift liability from the company to providers and that it didn’t give water suppliers enough time to decide how much money they would receive.
Letitia James, the attorney general for New York, announced on Tuesday that 3M had agreed to significantly alter the terms of the settlement. These changes, which are reflected in the proposed court order, include extending the time period during which eligible water systems must review the settlement and eliminating uncapped indemnity in 3M’s favor.
According to her office, James and the other attorneys general have since dropped their opposition. The judge gave the arrangement preliminary approval on Tuesday afternoon, according to court records.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press Tuesday, a spokesperson for 3M said the company was pleased to have to clarified the agreement and see the attorneys’ general objections withdrawn — adding that the deal “will benefit U.S.-based public water systems nationwide that provide drinking water to a vast majority of Americans without the need for further litigation by or on behalf of public water systems.”
Despite the fact that these objections were dropped, five attorneys general nevertheless objected to the settlement payment’s size and timing in an amicus letter, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who made the announcement on Tuesday.
“3M has agreed to modify its original proposed settlement in critical ways that will benefit the American people,” Bonta said in a statement. “However, 3M declined to pay an amount that accurately reflects the extraordinary damage it has caused to public drinking water systems, and it declined to provide water suppliers the money to remediate that damage more quickly.”
