Germany’s Bayer on Thursday agreed to pay New York state $6.9 billion to settle claims it misled consumers by representing the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup as safe, AFP reported.

The company and its subsidiary Monsanto “repeatedly claimed in advertisements that Roundup products containing the active ingredient glyphosate were safe and non-toxic without providing sufficient evidence,” the state attorney general’s office said in a statement.

The claims violate state laws against false and misleading advertising and a 1996 agreement between the attorney general’s office and Monsanto in which the company “agreed to stop making unsubstantiated claims about the safety” of the herbicide, the statement added.

Authorities targeted ads that claimed Roundup only kills weeds, doesn’t pose a danger to wildlife or is no more dangerous than common products like dishwashing liquid.

Circ, a division of the World Health Organization (WHO), considers Roundup a “probable carcinogen,” a description the group denies.

“We are pleased to end this business,” the company said in a statement to AFP, stressing that the deal was about promotional methods and not the nature of the product itself.

The agreement does not mean the group accepts the findings of the attorney general’s investigation, he added.

Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, has since been embroiled in several lawsuits related to the herbicide in the United States. In 2020, the group reached $10 billion to settle lawsuits filed by former users.