Renew MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy has asked the European Commission to investigate whether tobacco industry employees posed as individual citizens to lobby against a ban on cigarette filters in the Single-Use Plastics Directive review. In a written parliamentary question submitted on 17 June 2026, Gerbrandy cited research by the Fair Resource Foundation claiming that 80% of responses opposing regulation came from staff of Cerdia, a major cigarette filter manufacturer.
The MEP's question targets what he calls a strategic deployment of 'citizens' to bypass transparency rules. He asks the Commission to assess whether this practice violates Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which requires protecting public health policies from tobacco industry interference, and the EU's Interinstitutional Agreement on mandatory lobby registration.
investigating the suspect responses, imposing sanctions on the initiator if orchestration is confirmed, and flagging or excluding such responses from the evaluation. The Commission typically replies to priority questions within six weeks; its answer will signal how seriously it takes allegations of industry-orchestrated 'astroturfing' in public consultations.
The question puts pressure on the Commission to strengthen enforcement of transparency rules and could set a precedent for handling corporate attempts to manipulate EU policymaking via fake grassroots campaigns. Stakeholders most affected include the tobacco and filter industry (facing potential sanctions and exclusion from consultations), public health NGOs (seeking stricter regulation), and EU institutions (whose consultation integrity is at stake).