The Supreme Court of the US state of Washington has upheld a record fine of 18 million dollars against the food industry on appeal.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) campaigned in 2013 against a bill requiring food labels to disclose genetic modification techniques used in food products. The GMA concealed that this multimillion-dollar campaign, including protracted legal battles, was funded by major agricultural and food corporations such as Coca-Cola, General Mills, and Nestlé.
The donors only became known after the office of Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit for violations of the state campaign finance laws.
In the United States, politically charged campaigns and actions must disclose their sponsors. This applies not only to political advertisements but also to the financing of public campaigns.
The court stated that GMA's efforts to hide the identity of the companies financing the 2013 campaign strike at the core of open and transparent action.
GMA had spent more than 11 million dollars to block the bill mandating labeling of genetically modified food products.
In the United States, not only the federal government can enact rules and laws regarding food labeling, but each state can also establish its own laws provided they do not conflict with federal laws. As a result, regulations in some states are much stricter than in others. This also plays a role in the lawsuits against Bayer/Monsanto, all of which are being filed in California.