3M Co. has tentatively agreed to pay more than $5.5 billion to resolve over 300,000 lawsuits claiming it sold the U.S. military defective combat earplugs, Bloomberg News reported. The settlement would avert a potentially much larger liability that 3M sought to curb though a controversial bankruptcy case that ultimately collapsed. The sum is about half the roughly $10 billion some financial analysts predicted 3M could end up paying over allegations that the earplugs didn’t adequately protect the hearing of service members. Bloomberg Intelligence had estimated that the company’s potential liability was as much as $9.5 billion, while analysts at Barclays put it at about $8 billion. The accord would end a torrent of litigation facing the St. Paul, Minnesota, company even as it faces thousands of other lawsuits over PFAS “forever chemicals” likely to cost several times more than the earplug deal to resolve. 3M has lost 10 of 16 early trials over the earplugs so far, with over $250 million awarded to more than a dozen service members. In the most recent trial, a Florida jury ordered the manufacturer in 2022 to pay a U.S. Army veteran James Beal $77.5 million in damages over his hearing loss from the earplugs. Beal, who tested weapons over a four-year period starting in 2005, said he developed hearing loss and tinnitus, a buzzing or hissing sensation in the ears.
