|
Bayer last week admitted that Monsanto, which
it acquired for $63 billion last year, had gathered non-public
information as part of the campaign, which French media said
sought to influence the public debate on pesticides and
genetically modified products.
Bayer faces potentially heavy litigation costs from U.S.
class-action lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim that its Roundup
weedkiller, which contains glyphosate, causes cancer. Bayer
disputes this.
In a Q&A document posted on its website on Tuesday, Bayer said
U.S public relations and marketing agency FleishmanHillard, on
behalf of Monsanto, had mapped stakeholders in France, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and United Kingdom as well as
stakeholders related to EU institutions.
Sidley Austin will investigate how many stakeholders were
included in those files and whether people from other countries
could also be affected, Bayer said.
The law firm would then contact affected people, most of them
journalists, politicians and scientists, no later than by the
end of the coming week.
French prosecutors said they had opened an inquiry after
newspaper Le Monde filed a complaint alleging that Monsanto had
kept a file of 200 names in hopes of influencing their
positions.
Bayer has ended its PR collaboration with FleishmanHillard, but
continues to work with the firm on marketing projects.
Bayer shares have shed more than 40 percent since a first
adverse U.S. judgment on Roundup last August, leaving the
company with a market capitalization smaller than the price it
paid for Monsanto.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
