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Bryan Hirsch, +41 76 547 3476
Susan Cavanagh, +41 78 626 4490
Today NGOs released an expose highlighting new tobacco industry
tactics to undermine implementation of the global tobacco treaty,
formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). The report comes at the midpoint of an
eight-day negotiating meeting on a protocol to the FCTC on illicit
tobacco trade, where tobacco giants such as Philip Morris International
(PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco (JT) have a
strong presence. The document, produced by Corporate Accountability
International and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco
Transnationals (NATT), criticizes FCTC Parties such as Lebanon and the
Philippines for collaborating with tobacco corporations and falling
short of commitments under the treaty.
FCTC Article 5.3 obligates treaty Parties to "protect [public
health] policies from commercial and other vested interests of the
tobacco industry in accordance with national law." Guidelines for the
implementation of this measure were adopted at the third Conference of
Parties (COP) last November in Durban, South Africa (full text
available online: https://www.who.int/fctc/guidelines/article_5_3.pdf).
"In November, ratifying countries unanimously adopted rigorous
guidelines to protect public health policy against tobacco industry
interference," explains Kathryn Mulvey, International Policy Director
for Corporate Accountability International. "Now, Big Tobacco is trying
to get governments to ignore their obligations under the treaty and
make exceptions to these new rules. We urge the international community
to reject the tobacco industry's attempts to subvert the FCTC and
derail the illicit trade protocol."
The tobacco corporations and civil society do seem to agree about
one thing: the protocol on illicit trade is precedent-setting. This is
the first high-profile tobacco control issue to be taken on at the
global level since last November, when three sets of implementation
guidelines were adopted - on banning tobacco advertising, promotion and
sponsorship; effective warning labels; and protecting against tobacco
industry interference. NGOs are calling on treaty Parties to follow
through on their commitments. Meanwhile the tobacco lobby is present
and visible at this week's negotiations in full force, seeking to
influence the content of the protocol to its own advantage and chip
away at the safeguards of Article 5.3.
PMI has invited delegates to attend private meetings at the
Intercontinental Hotel throughout the week. In contrast to the previous
two negotiating sessions, this week the public gallery has been packed
full of tobacco industry lobbyists. On Monday there were more than
forty people in the gallery.
Twenty-three of the twenty-eight people willing to identify
themselves were from the tobacco industry, including twelve from BAT,
seven from JT, one from Imperial Tobacco, and one from the Tobacco
Institute of South Africa.
The FCTC Article 5.3 guidelines instruct ratifying countries to
"Establish measures to limit interactions with the tobacco industry and
ensure the transparency of those interactions that occur"
(Recommendation 2). But last month Lebanon played host to British
American Tobacco's (BAT) two-day conference on illicit trade, where
Lebanese Minister of Finance Dr. Mohammed Shateh and other high-level
public officials from the region reportedly met with BAT behind closed
doors to discuss taxes, smuggling and other policy issues.
The guidelines also recommend that treaty Parties, "Reject
partnerships and non-binding or non-enforceable agreements with the
tobacco industry" (Recommendation 3). But last month Philippines
customs authorities signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Philip
Morris Philippines, through which the corporation will presumably gain
access to law enforcement personnel and customs data. (This is the same
corporation that was accused by Thailand two years ago of exploiting
customs procedures and evading taxes by understating the value of
exports.)
The guidelines begin with the principle that 'There is a fundamental
and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry's interests
and public health policy interests" (Principle 1) and urge Parties to
avoid conflicts of interest for government officials and employees
(Recommendation 4). Yet PMI reports meeting with 2,800 government
agencies and 8,000 government employees to promote its system for
tracking and tracing cigarette products.
"This report is a powerful reminder to FCTC Parties that the tobacco
industry is not and cannot be a partner in tobacco control
initiatives," said Laurent Huber, Director of the Framework Convention
Alliance (FCA). "The FCTC is motivated by a desire to protect human
health and the tobacco industry is motivated by profit which inherently
undermines human health, therefore the two are in direct opposition."
View the full report Clearing the Smoke-Filled Room: An Expose on
How the Tobacco Industry Attempts to Undermine the Global Tobacco
Treaty and the Illicit Trade Protocol online:
English: https://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/sites/default/files/INB3%20English%20F...
Spanish: https://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/sites/default/files/INB3%20Spanish%20F...
French: https://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/sites/default/files/INB3%20French%20FI...
Corporate Accountability stops transnational corporations from devastating democracy, trampling human rights, and destroying our planet.
(617) 695-2525
"The financial industry aggressively markets DAFs for uncharitable reasons: advantages as tax avoidance vehicles, especially for complex assets; no payout requirements—and secrecy to donors and grantees alike," said one of the report's authors.
A new report released on this year's philanthropic holiday known as Giving Tuesday details how the "profit motives of the financial services sector have increasingly and disastrously warped how charitable giving functions."
The analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies—titled "Gilded Giving 2024: Saving Philanthropy from Wall Street"—shows how donor-advised funds (DAFs) increasingly serve the economic interests of donors and the Wall Street firms that manage the funds, rather than the interests of nonprofit charities.
Rather than donate to a cause directly, wealthy people have the option to donate to foundations or DAFs, which can be sponsored by for-profit wealth management firms like Fidelity Investments or Charles Schwab. Firms like Fidelity Investments, in turn, benefit from being able to offer this type of service to wealthy clients.
"At last count," according to the report's authors, "DAFs and foundations together take in 35 percent of all individual giving in the U.S." If they continue to grow at the rate they have for the past five years, they're expected to take in half of all individual giving in the country by 2028.
Why is this a problem? For one thing, according to the report, some of the money that's intended for donation is scraped up by the DAFs and foundations, meaning that dollars meant for a cause are diverted elsewhere.
"With each passing year, an additional 2 cents of each dollar donated by individuals is funneled into intermediaries and away from working charities. Assuming that their assets will grow at the same rate they have over the past five years, the assets held in DAFs and foundations will eclipse $2 trillion by 2026," according to the report's authors.
What's more, there is no requirement that DAFs disburse their assets, according to the report's authors—meaning there's no guarantee the money is given to charity, and in practice the money in these accounts tends to move slowly, often generating gains instead of being dispersed.
DAFs also facilitate anonymous giving, because donations from them need only be credited to their sponsors, not the original person directing the contribution, according to Inequality.org, a project of IPS.
The report's authors argue that DAFs are part of a wider “wealth defense industry” — tax lawyers, accountants, and wealth managers whose interests are more geared towards helping their clients increase assets, minimize taxes, maximize wealth transfer to descendants, and net some of those assets for themselves in the form of fees, as opposed to supporting charitable causes.
DAFS are used strategically in this way, for example, by giving donors the ability to dispose of noncash assets, according to the report. In practice, this means that DAF donors can give stocks, real estate and other noncash assets directly to DAFS when markets are doing well, meaning they are able to get income tax deductions from their contribution while side stepping paying capital gains tax on appreciation of those assets.
"The financial industry aggressively markets DAFs for uncharitable reasons: advantages as tax avoidance vehicles, especially for complex assets; no payout requirements—and secrecy to donors and grantees alike," said Chuck Collins, co-author of the report and director of the Charity Reform Initiative at IPS.
Other key insights from the study include:
"This rule would be a major win for the privacy rights of Americans and is the kind of bipartisan, commonsense action that should be protected and encouraged by politicians in both parties."
Considering billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's concerns about data privacy, advocates on Tuesday suggested he should welcome the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's newly proposed rule that would stop data brokers from selling people's personal information.
"But they can't do it if you 'delete CFPB,'" grassroots group Demand Progress warned Musk in a post on social media, referring to his remark last week that the bureau is one of the "duplicative regulatory agencies" that he plans to dismantle as the head of a proposed government agency under President-elect Donald Trump.
Demand Progress applauded CFPB Director Rohit Chopra's announcement on Tuesday of a proposed rule that would limit the sale of personal information like Social Security numbers and phone numbers to ensure data brokers don't sell sensitive data to scammers.
Under the rule, the CFPB would clarify that when data brokers sell certain consumer data they are acting as "consumer reporting agencies" as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which requires them to comply with accuracy requirements and maintain safeguards.
"Until now," said Demand Progress, "data brokers have been able to sell our personal information to the highest bidder—including scammers, blackmailers, and stalkers."
Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director for Demand Progress Education Fund, said the agency "should be applauded for standing up to data brokers and working to rein in the sale of sensitive information about us, which can also end up in the hands of foreign governments."
"This groundbreaking rule offers a needed solution for Americans who are sick and tired of being inundated by scam texts, calls, and emails—often from fraudsters who have been able to buy our data for mere pennies," said Peterson-Cassin. "If finalized, this rule would be a major win for the privacy rights of Americans and is the kind of bipartisan, commonsense action that should be protected and encouraged by politicians in both parties."
Demand Progress was also among the groups that tied the announcement to a recent comment by Musk about a report that data brokers sell data about military personnel to unknown buyers for as little as 12 cents.
Musk called the report "concerning" in a Nov. 17 post on X.
"Good news, Elon!" said the organization, informing him of the proposed rule—before warning that Musk's own plan to gut the CFPB would embolden the very data brokers he expressed concern about.
"Guess which federal agency just proposed a rule cracking down on those data brokers selling the data of U.S. military personnel?" added the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The CFPB said its proposal would also address other "critical threats from current data broker practices," including:
The CFPB introduced the rule after finding that "data brokers routinely sidestep the FCRA by claiming they aren't subject to its requirements."
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who for years has called on the CFPB to address the threats of data brokers, toldThe Washington Post that he has concerns the rule won't go into effect once Trump takes office.
"Unfortunately," said Wyden, "it will be up to Trump's CFPB to finalize this."
Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen, said the proposed protections would protect Americans from the $250 billion-per-year data sales business.
"All of us leave our financial fingerprints everywhere, every day, between credit card swipes, internet communications, and more. Thieves, loan sharks, stalkers, even foreign espionage agents can exploit gaping holes in credit reporting enforcement that the CFPB is rightly proposing to repair," said Naylor.
"A Republican-led congressional committee investigated this last year, a reminder that this isn't a partisan issue," Naylor added. "No one should side with data predators."
"Elon Musk's commission is a plot to destroy our Social Security by giving it to Wall Street executives—so that you get nothing and they get everything," warned one advocate.
A lengthy series of X posts attacking Social Security as a "nightmare" caught the attention of the platform's mega-billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who could soon take aim at the beloved New Deal program as co-chair of an advisory commission tasked with identifying federal spending to slash.
"Interesting thread," Musk, the world's richest man, wrote late Monday in response to the posts by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who once said he hopes to pull Social Security "up by the roots and get rid of it," along with Medicare and Medicaid.
In his new thread, Lee characterized Social Security—which lifts more Americans above the poverty line than any other federal program—as a "tax plan" insidiously disguised as a retirement plan and condemned the Social Security Act of 1935 as one of many "deceptive sales techniques the U.S. government has used on the American people."
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), replied Tuesday that Lee's posts amount to "a misrepresentation of Social Security's history and how the program works."
"There is nothing deceptive about Social Security. The social insurance program has been working just fine for nearly 90 years and has never missed a payment," said Richtman. "The kind of propaganda Sen. Lee posted undermines public support for Social Security, making it easier to cut or privatize the program. It is perhaps no coincidence that Sen. Lee's second-biggest campaign contributor by industry is the securities and investment sector."
"The money is ours, Mike Lee, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. You're not going to get a penny of it."
Lee also claimed the federal government "routinely raids" the Social Security Trust Fund—a longstanding and misleading right-wing talking point.
Social Security Works (SSW), a progressive advocacy group, said Tuesday that by amplifying Lee's thread to his hundreds of millions of followers, Musk "just declared war on Social Security."
"For 89 years, through war and peace, boom time and bust, health and pandemics, Social Security has never missed a single payment," said Alex Lawson, SSW's executive director. "Compared to the risky alternatives on Wall Street, Social Security is a rock of retirement security. If billionaires like Elon Musk paid into Social Security at the same rate as the rest of us on all of their income, we could expand benefits for everyone and pay them in full forever."
"This is a declaration of war against seniors, people with disabilities, and the American public," Lawson said. "The Republicans are coming for your Social Security, which they call a 'nightmare.' Elon Musk's commission is a plot to destroy our Social Security by giving it to Wall Street executives—so that you get nothing and they get everything."
"We've seen this play again and again," he added. "When Republicans destroyed defined-benefit pension plans, they claimed that the market would be able to create amazing returns for everybody. Instead, workers got pennies, while Wall Street managers got billions. That is always the plan. We will defeat this Republican effort to steal our earned benefits. The money is ours, Mike Lee, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. You're not going to get a penny of it."
Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, similarly denounced Lee's thread and Musk's promotion of it, saying both "should enrage and concern every single American who has contributed to Social Security."
"Sen. Mike Lee has dreamed about 'phasing out Social Security' and the benefits generations of Americans have earned for more than a decade. His bad ideas have been rightfully ignored but last night he got a big assist from Elon Musk, who amplified Lee's wrongheaded views about Social Security on X."
"Social Security is a solemn promise between the American people and the government," Fiesta continued. "We pay for Social Security's guaranteed benefits with every paycheck and expect them to be there when we retire, lose a spouse or parent, or become disabled. No one voted to phase out Social Security or let Wall Street gamble with their earned benefits. Older Americans will rightly punish any politician who tries to cut their benefits or gut the system that has worked for generations."
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump pledged to defend Social Security while simultaneously pushing proposals that would wreck the program's finances.
Many Republican lawmakers, who are soon to be in the majority in both chambers of Congress, have called for raising the Social Security retirement age—a change that would cut benefits across the board. On Tuesday, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) toldFox Business Network that "we're going to have to have some hard decisions" on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare—a euphemism for benefit cuts.
Richtman of NCPSSM said that the kind of attack advanced by Lee and other Republicans "conflicts with President Trump's promise not to tamper with Americans' earned benefits."
"It signals where Trump's MAGA allies in Congress are heading—toward privatization and benefit cuts, something the majority of Americans across party lines say they do not want," Richtman added.