Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier launched an antitrust investigation Tuesday into plastics groups pushing restrictive environmental goals that allegedly drive up costs.
Uthmeier sent civil investigative demands (CIDs) requiring several companies and environmental groups to produce communications and documents related to “problematic materials” lists or rules, among other records. Companies’ participation in coordinated environmental standards set by plastics groups could violate antitrust laws and harm consumers, the Florida attorney general alleges.
“Environmental groups are pressuring corporations to abandon free market principles and raise prices on consumers for products they don’t want, and many corporations continue their associations with these groups,” Uthmeier told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “Our office provided them with a sufficient opportunity to respond to our inquiries regarding potential violations of the law. Time’s up.”
Coca-Cola, which participates in all three organizations under investigation by Uthmeier, aims to “use 35% to 40% recycled material in primary packaging (plastic, glass and aluminum), including increasing recycled plastic use to 30% to 35%” by 2025, according to its website.
“When companies and trade groups collectively restrict production and impose uniform standards under the banner of sustainability, it raises serious concerns about reduced competition, higher costs, and constrained consumer choice,” American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac said in a statement to the DCNF.
Groups that received CIDs, such as the U.S. Plastics Pact, the Consumer Goods Forum and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, are “pushing a radical [Environmental, Social and Governance] ESG and climate agenda through restrictive policies that decrease competition, drive up costs, and restrict both the quality and availability of everyday goods for consumers,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild explained.
“Consumers’ Research has warned corporations against adhering to woke activists over the consumers they’re supposed to serve and we applaud AG Uthmeier for opening an investigation into these practices,” Hild said. “It is necessary these organizations and companies are held accountable for likely violating antitrust laws to prioritize woke politics over consumers.”
The CIDs sent to plastics groups, along with Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Nestle, Target and Unilver, say “agreements that unreasonably restrain trade and result in increased costs, reduced output and reduced quality of goods and services” could violate the Florida Antitrust Act.
Target notes it is an “activator in the U.S. Plastics Pact, which is working to achieve ambitious targets by 2025” like ensuring all packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable. Other targets for member companies include eliminating “problematic or unnecessary” packaging.
Nestle and Mondelez left the U.S. Plastics Pact in 2025, according to Packaging Dive.
Meanwhile, the Consumer Goods Forum advocates for collective action to advance a “a different approach to plastic usage, from production, consumption and reuse, to recycling and disposal,” according to its website.
At its conference beginning Tuesday, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition planned to help attendees think through “clear next steps for their sustainability strategies,” according to their website.
“This investigation is an important step toward reaffirming that corporate activism cannot come at the expense of fair competition and the rule of law,” Isaac said.
Along with Republican attorneys general from nine other states, Uthmeier led a letter to nearly 80 corporations in February expressing “grave concerns that the policies, coordinated initiatives, and compliance frameworks these organizations promote and prescribe to their members may constitute unlawful restraints of trade in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.”
“These advocacy organizations want to remove products from the market without considering consumer demand, product effectiveness, or the cost and impact on consumers of a replacement product,” the attorneys general wrote.
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