Bayer Unit Cuts Citric Acid Settlement

A unit of Bayer will pay $8 million less to settle a class-action suit against it and other citric acid makers under a revised plan filed in federal court in San Francisco. Bayer unit Haarman & Reimer Corp. had agreed to pay $46 million to settle claims that it engaged in price fixing with Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and other makers of the food additive. Under the new plan the company will pay $38 million. Attorneys in the class action agreed to lower the amount that Haarman & Reimer would pay after major citric acid purchasers including Procter & Gamble Co. and Quaker Oats Co. dropped out of the settlement to pursue separate legal actions. Under the original settlement reached last year, four companies including Haarman & Reimer were to pay $94 million into a fund to be divided among hundreds of purchasers of citric acid. The other citric acid makers, ADM, Roche Holding’s Hoffman-LaRoche Inc. and Jungbunzlauer Inc., didn’t renegotiate their share of the settlement. A federal judge is set to consider the revised plan next month.