BREAKING: Avaaz wins case against Monsanto

Democracy, freedom of speech rule the day

NEW YORK (Sept 6, 2018) — Manhattan Supreme Court Justice, Shlomo S. Hagler, granted Avaaz’s motion to quash Monsanto’s subpoena to handover all documents, emails, correspondence and other materials in its possession related to glyphosate. Judge warned Monsanto that such action is an attempt to “chill” the efforts of Avaaz and all other lobbying organizations in the country.

In reaction to Hagler’s decision, Avaaz deputy director, Emma Ruby-Sachs, said:

“It’s unbelievable, but we beat back Monsanto and won in court! Not only are we safe from this legal attack, but the judge even told Monsanto that what they were doing was anti-democratic and an attempt to “chill” the voices of our members, and the voices of citizens engaged in lobbying everywhere. Monsanto can appeal, but they’d be crazy to try to take on this amazing community of almost 50 million people again.”

Last February Avaaz was served with a subpoena demanding almost a decade’s worth of internal campaign communications and political strategy documents be turned over to Monsanto. Avaaz has helped lead the movement to regulate glyphosate from the US to the European Union —glyphosate is the cornerstone chemical in Monsanto’s $50 billion empire. Avaaz’s members voted to fight the subpoena and funded the defense effort with thousands of small online donations.

The subpoena against Avaaz was issued as part of Peterson v. Monsanto Co., a pending case in the Circuit Court of St. Louis, Missouri, that involves two men who allege that exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup, a product containing glyphosate, caused their non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Notably, all of Avaaz’s advocacy efforts on glyphosate occurred after the plaintiffs had stopped using Roundup and had already been diagnosed with cancer.

*** Notes from judge Hagler’s oral decision are available. Official transcript to come. ***

For more information email to media@avaaz.org or call at +1-415-217-9392