Bayer Says Monsanto's PR Tactics Were Legal
September 05 2019 - 10:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Ruth Bender
BERLIN -- Monsanto Co.'s past public-relations tactics in Europe
didn't break the law, according to a report commissioned by Bayer
AG, in the chemicals and pharmaceuticals group's latest effort to
clear the legal and reputational liabilities caused by its
acquisition of the agrochemical company.
Bayer has been in crisis mode since closing the Monsanto deal in
2018. In the past year, it has lost three jury trials alleging that
Monsanto's Roundup herbicide causes cancer, which sent its share
price falling by roughly a third. It is also facing bans on
glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkillers,
in Europe, including in its home market of Germany, due to the
herbicide's alleged environmental risks.
A separate front opened in May after French prosecutors launched
an investigation following French media reports that Monsanto and a
public-relations firm had drawn up lists in 2016 of hundreds of
influential French personalities, some of whom had raised concerns
about possible risks posed by Monsanto's products.
While compiling so-called stakeholder lists is common practice
in public relations, the reports alleged that they included
sensitive personal information that wasn't publicly available,
whose storage without permission can be illegal in some European
Union countries.
However, Bayer said Thursday that law firm Sidley Austin LLP had
examined the allegations and found no evidence that the lists were
illegal.
Monsanto has long been a lighting rod for environmentalists in
Europe, who see it as a symbol for practices they oppose, from the
genetic engineering of crops to the intensive use of pesticide in
agriculture -- a reputational baggage Bayer has now inherited.
Bayer has appealed the Roundup court verdicts in the U.S.,
insists Roundup is safe when used with proper precautions and has
criticized the bans on glyphosate in Germany and Austria as
unscientific.
As part of its effort to clear its name, Bayer also hired
Matthias Berninger, a former Green Party politician in Germany, as
its head of public affairs and sustainability.
People familiar with the matter said Mr. Berninger caused
consternation among former Monsanto employees in the U.S. when he
publicly apologized in May for the company's stakeholder lists,
before it was established whether the practice was illegal.
Sidley Austin said it assessed over 2.4 million documents in
relation to the lists, which included 1,500 people, mostly in the
EU -- from journalists to officials working in EU institutions --
but also in the U.S.
In its 49-page report, the law firm said the lists were
"detailed, methodical, and designed to strongly advocate Monsanto's
positions to stakeholders and to the public," but there was no
evidence of illegal surveillance of personal hobbies or leisure
activities or information that went beyond what was in the public
domain.
The German Council for Public Relations in July also concluded
that there was no wrongdoing.
The French prosecutor's office couldn't immediately be reached
to comment on the status of its probe.
A Bayer spokesman said the French prosecutor's investigations
were ongoing. Bayer hasn't been presented with formal allegations
or charges from any data protection authority or other body, either
in France or elsewhere in the EU.
Write to Ruth Bender at Ruth.Bender@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 05, 2019 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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