German pharmaceuticals and chemicals company Bayer has said it does not accept “unethical behaviour” in reaction to a French investigation into a suspected file assembled by the German company’s seed-making unit Monsanto to influence various personalities in France, reports Reuters.
French public prosecution services prosecutor said on Friday it had opened the probe after a complaint was filed by daily newspaper Le Monde.
According to the newspaper and other French media, Monsanto built up a file of some 200 names that includes journalists and lawmakers in the hope of influencing their positions on pesticides.
The file, Le Monde reported, dates from 2016 and was leaked by US public relations and marketing agency FleishmanHillard.
In an emailed statement, Bayer declined to comment on the investigation, saying it did not know which documents the allegations referred to.
“We stand for openness and a fair treatment of all interest groups. We do not accept any unethical behavior in our company,” it said. “That applies obviously for the data privacy regulations in the respective countries as well.”
FleishmanHillard said on Friday it would investigate the allegations in Le Monde. The company will “examine the questions raised by certain media outlets about the lists of stakeholders that included publicly available information,” it said in a statement.
Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in a $63 billion deal last year, faces mounting litigations over its weedkiller Roundup, a systemic, broad-spectrum glyphosate-based herbicide.