Thursday, July 29, 2021

France fines Monsanto for illegally acquiring data on journalists, activists

Advertising The firm, now owned by German chemical giant Bayer, failed to inform the people on the watch lists compiled in the context of a heated public debate about glyphosate, a weed killer, it ruled.

Compiling lists of contacts was not in itself illegal, the agency said, but only people who could "Reasonably expect" to figure on such lists because of their business sector or their public standing should have been included.

Monsanto gave a rating of one to five to each of the over 200 people on its French lists corresponding to their estimated influence, credibility and level of support for Monsanto on several topics, especially pesticides and genetically-modified crops.

The case, first reported by French media Le Monde and France 2 television in 2019, quickly spread to other European countries where Monsanto was also keeping lists.

In a report published by Bayer, the US-based law firm Sidley Austin added that it had found no evidence of illegal surveillance activity surrounding the watch lists.

CNIL's ruling still differed from Bayer's own view that the lists were legal, it said.

FleishmanHillard compiled the lists of people active in the pesticide debate around the time the European Union was considering the renewal of the license for controversial weedkiller glyphosate in 2016-17.

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210728-france-fines-monsanto-for-illegally-acquiring-data-on-journalists-activists 

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