TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Paul Burch on Aug 29, 2023

3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to settle over 250,000 lawsuits that accuse the company of selling defective combat earplugs that caused hearing loss in hundreds of thousands of military service members. Reuters reports the deal was announced today after a failed attempt by 3M to move the lawsuits, which are currently the largest mass tort litigation in U.S. history, into bankruptcy court. Combat Arms earplugs were made by Aearo Technologies, a company 3M acquired in 2008. The earplugs were used by the U.S. military from 2003 to 2015, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. A U.S. judge dismissed Aearo’s recent bankruptcy claim, noting that Aearo, as a subsidiary of 3M, enjoys a "greater degree of financial security than warrants bankruptcy protection."