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France fines Monsanto for illegally running ‘watch lists’

By AFP
July 29, 2021

Paris: France’s personal data protection agency on Wednesday fined US firm Monsanto for illegally compiling files of public figures, journalists and activists with the aim of swaying opinion towards support for its controversial pesticides.

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. The CNIL agency fined Monsanto 400,000 euros ($473,000) in the case brought by seven plaintiffs.