German agrichemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer has asked Sidley Austin to investigate possible data protection breaches by FleishmanHillard, a public relations and marketing company that was working on Bayer's public affairs.

Bayer has faced fierce public criticism in France and other EU countries after French media revealed that FleishmanHillard had drawn up a list of important stakeholders connected to the authorisation of glyphosate, a controversial pesticide. Glyphosate is owned by Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2016.

In a statement, Bayer said that it has asked Sidley's Brussels office to investigate the names on the list and the information stored about them. Bayer said that Sidley would contact all the people on the list before the end of next week to inform them that their details had been collected by FleishmanHillard.

The list, part of a stakeholder-mapping exercise, included the names of politicians and journalists in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the U.K. as well as some who are part of the European Commission. According to media reports, the list contains private information such as email addresses and telephone numbers as well as residential addresses. Storing this information without the person's approval would be a breach of EU data protection rules.

Stakeholder mapping is usual practice for public affairs consultants as a way of analysing support for or opposition to regulation or legislation and targeting lobbying efforts. It involves identifying people who have some influence on the outcome of a legislative or regulatory process. These can be people with a direct effect, such as politicians and regulators, or those who have an indirect effect, such as journalists, who influence public opinion.

Bayer has announced it has ended its relationship with FleishmanHillard apart from its marketing contracts.

The EU decided in 2017 to renew authorisation of the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, for five years. This was despite a huge lobbying campaign to ban the pesticide because of fears that it causes cancer. France voted against the renewal and has vowed to ban the substance by the end of next year at the latest, once an alternative is found.

Bayer bought Monsanto in 2016 for $63 billion, but the company's share value has declined since then after Monsanto lost a number of lawsuits in the U.S. in which plaintiffs demanded compensation, arguing that RoundUp had given them cancer. In one recent case, a couple in California was awarded $2 billion. Monsanto is facing hundreds of similar claims for compensation.

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