[Investigation] Revealed: The EU lobbying of the so-called ‘Consumer Choice Center’

It seems that Consumer Choice Center’s exercise places it in breach of EU transparency guidelines, which require lobbyists to declare their actions on the EU Transparency Register.

“Anyone who seeks to affect policymaking, or resolution making of EU establishments needs to be on the register,” stated Green MEP Daniel Freund. “It makes no distinction whether or not that is a gathering, an e-mail, an op-ed, or an enormous billboard in entrance of the European Parliament.”

MEPs must know “who they’re coping with,” Freund added.

However, the guidelines will not be legally-binding, and organisations in breach face minimal sanctions. According to transparency campaigners, this enables teams like Consumer Choice Center to “attempt to affect the Brussels bubble with out respecting transparency”.

Consumer Choice Center, primarily based in Washington DC, types itself as a client advocacy group that “represents shoppers in over 100 nations throughout the globe”. However, on its web site, which lists 62 employees members, the group says that it has beforehand been funded by the vitality, chemical, and airways industries and doesn’t publish its present sources of finance.

The group spent €250,000 on EU lobbying in 2020 and employed 16 lobbyists.

Vicky Cann from LobbyFacts stated it was “completely basic” for organisations to publish their funding sources. “We want to grasp why an organisation is advocating sure positions,” she stated.

DeSmog understands that the group was faraway from the EU’s foyer register in May 2022 following a top quality examine by the secretariat geared toward detecting potential inaccuracies, errors or omissions in the register. The group’s removing from the register additionally adopted the introduction of new lobbying guidelines requiring extra transparency over funding sources, which have been introduced in final March.

Freund stated that it was necessary for policymakers to work together with lobbyists in “any wholesome democracy”, however that “wherever there could possibly be an affect of cash on politics, the naked minimal is to make it clear and provides voters the chance to carry resolution makers accountable.”

Connections to US Big Oil

Consumer Choice Center was established in 2017 by the libertarian advocacy group Students for Liberty, which is funded by the Koch oil community.

Students for Liberty has acquired virtually $1m [€910,000] in funding since 2009 from the philanthropic organisations of Charles Koch, who co-owns Koch Industries — one of the largest privately-held firms in the US — which trades closely in oil and gasoline. Organisations related to Koch Industries have directed at least $100m to local weather science denial teams since 1997.

Between 2017 and 2019 — whereas Consumer Choice Center was half of the group — Students for Liberty additionally acquired donations of over $100,000 from the Atlas Network, an alliance of libertarian assume tanks that has acquired funding from Koch foundations and fossil gasoline corporations. Members of the Atlas Network have campaigned in opposition to laws to restrict greenhouse gasoline emissions and have questioned the presence and severity of human-caused local weather change.

Students for Liberty additionally acquired a one-off donation of $10,000 from the Cato Institute, a US-based libertarian assume tank that has acquired tens of millions in funding from Koch sources and has downplayed the severity of world warming. Consumer Choice Center was half of US-based Students for Liberty till 2020.

Fellows and workers of the Consumer Choice Center even have skilled hyperlinks to programmes run by Koch-funded teams, the Cato Institute and the Atlas Network, whereas over half of these listed on the organisation’s website have been concerned in Students for Liberty.

Consumer Choice Center fellow Maria Chaplia accomplished a Charles Koch market-based administration programme, whereas the group’s US affairs analyst Elizabeth Hicks accomplished a Koch affiliate programme at the Charles Koch Institute.

Research supervisor Emil Panzaru and Latam coverage fellow Antonella Marty each accomplished internships at the Cato Institute, whereas Marty can be associate director of the Center for Latin America at the Atlas Network.

The Center has paid for adverts on Facebook in latest months lobbying in opposition to EU plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles, and in opposition to the strengthening of chemical rules.

It has written virtually 50 articles on EU coverage points because it was faraway from the foyer register, in addition to hosting a “cross-party and cross-committee” group in the European Parliament attended by greater than 30 MEPs.

The Consumer Choice Center has suggested that Europe ought to “shelve all their local weather ambitions [and] refine extra oil” in mild of the battle in Ukraine and warned that EU plans to change into carbon impartial by 2050 would have disastrous economic consequences.

Under new lobbying rules introduced last March, non-commercial entities like Consumer Choice Center need to declare their sources of funding on the EU Transparency Register in the event that they quantity to over 10 p.c of an organisation’s price range and exceed €10,000.

Consumer Choice Center didn’t replace its funding sources earlier than its removing from the register in May 2022. DeSmog didn’t obtain a response to questions on whether or not Consumer Choice Center’s removing from the register associated to the introduction of the new guidelines.

The group doesn’t publish details about its present funders. However, its website states that it has beforehand “acquired funding from a number of industries resembling vitality, fast-moving client items, airways, manufacturing, digital, healthcare, chemical compounds, banking, cryptocurrencies, and fin-tech”. It says that its “help comes from firms, people, and foundations” and that it has a “tiered membership mannequin” on supply.

Lisa Graves of True North — which has spent a long time researching the Koch community — stated she was not shocked that Consumer Choice Center has tried to model itself as a client rights organisation regardless of its ties to {industry}.

“Groups tackle names to attempt to convey that they stand with shoppers, however they promote a slim agenda that’s at odds with what most individuals need: insurance policies that shield the rights and pursuits of strange individuals to protected merchandise and protected practices that do not hurt our surroundings or our lives,” she stated.

The tactic of ‘astroturfing’ — of teams adopting a consumer-rights picture whereas being funded by business entities — is commonplace among those with ties to the Koch network.

Consumer Choice Center says on its web site that, “We strictly preserve editorial independence and don’t give our funders any affect on editorial selections.”

Anti-Green Lobbying

Consumer Choice Center has been a vocal opponent of inexperienced laws in the EU.

Prior to its removing from the EU Transparency Register, the group revealed coverage briefings that opposed plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035. It additionally criticised targets to reduce chemical pesticides and fertiliser use and enhance natural farming.

Its campaigns have additionally seemingly sought to show public opinion in opposition to internet zero air pollution discount targets.

In late 2020, Consumer Choice Center paid for a Facebook advert to over one million people, which claimed that EU plans to succeed in carbon neutrality by 2050 would elevate vitality prices by 20 p.c, result in a GDP decline, and end in 500,000 job losses. The warnings have been repeated in an article from the group in 2023.

Cann, of the transparency watchdog LobbyFacts, accused the group of an “anti-science place”. She questioned its declare to be a client advocacy group given its adoption of an “industry-friendly framing”.

The insurance policies advocated by Consumer Choice Center “will not be options that residents will profit from or really need”, she stated.

Since the group was faraway from the EU foyer register in May 2022, it has continued to publicly foyer in opposition to inexperienced rules.

In April 2023, the group sponsored an advert on Facebook about the EU’s plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel-vehicles, stating that “Europe is favouring one kind of expertise over the different by banning gas-powered autos, when in essence the selection needs to be as much as shoppers.”

The identical month, it sponsored Facebook adverts opposing EU plans to strengthen chemical rules, warning, “Don’t let your favorite magnificence merchandise go away”.

Since May 2022, Consumer Choice Center employees members have additionally written virtually 50 articles (equal to almost one piece per week) for media retailers on EU points, overlaying topics from pesticides discount targets to rules of genetically-engineered seeds.

The majority of these articles have been revealed in EU retailers, together with influential Brussels media resembling the Brussels Times, and the Parliament Magazine.

Their articles embrace multiple warnings that the “total agricultural sector” is in peril from inexperienced farming reforms — insurance policies which can be dealing with pushback throughout the EU after a fierce industry-led lobbying marketing campaign. Consumer Choice Center claims to have been featured in the media on greater than 5,000 events throughout its historical past.

MEP Freund stated that media retailers ought to guarantee “organisations that do not play by the guidelines do not get a platform,” whereas Graves of True North stated that Consumer Choice Center’s lack of transparency was a significant concern. “Ordinary individuals and reporters can solely get glimpses of how they’re spending cash to affect and warp public curiosity,” she stated.

‘Existing Rules Are Not Enforced’

Campaigners agreed that the actions of Consumer Choice Center seem to violate EU transparency guidelines.

Under the EU’s guidelines, any “curiosity representatives” that try to affect coverage, laws or the resolution making course of ought to declare their actions, foyer spending, and registered lobbyists.

In April 2021, the European Parliament strengthened its transparency steerage to include “indirect lobbying activities”.

However, campaigners say that the obvious breach exhibits the must additional reform EU transparency guidelines.

Transparency tips in the EU will not be legally-binding. While clear steerage is offered for foyer teams, compliance is basically voluntary, and organisations face restricted sanctions for failing to conform.

In principle, MEPs ought to solely meet with foyer teams which were correctly registered, however advocacy teams say this rule is frequently breached.

“Consumer Choice Center is proof that with no legally-binding foyer register, you’ll all the time have organisations that attempt to affect the Brussels bubble with out respecting transparency norms,” stated Cann from Lobbyfacts.

“Existing guidelines will not be enforced,” Freund added. EU guidelines are comparatively robust in comparison with worldwide norms, he stated, “but when they are not utilized, if they are not enforced, the greatest guidelines in the world do not assist us. At the second, the establishments self-police: MEPs examine on MEPs; commissioners examine on commissioners… We want an impartial oversight physique.”

Consumer Choice Center additionally appears to be breaking EU rules which state that organisations can’t use the logos of EU establishments “with out their categorical permission”. Consumer Choice Center displays the European Parliament’s logo on its web site, on a web page about its MEP community on innovation. It didn’t reply questions on whether or not it had been given authorisation to take action.

The European Commission declined to remark.