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Press release 29 September 2008
For images and links to supporting documents see the on-line
version at:
http://www.nestlecritics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=1
Campaign group, Baby Milk Action, has refused to transfer a
domain name to Nestlé as demanded by lawyers acting for
the World’s Largest Food Company. A deadline of 29 September
was given by lawyers last week. The site, which gives an
overview of concerns about Nestlé business activities and
serves as a portal for further information from expert
analysts, is to be launched on 4 October, the start of this
year’s International Nestlé-Free Week and the 20th
anniversary of the launch of a boycott of Nestlé over its
aggressive marketing of baby milk. The site has the theme:
"Nestlé’s actions speak louder than its words" and experts
provide independent analysis of various aspects of
Nestlé’s business including baby milk marketing, treatment
of workers, child slavery in its cocoa supply chain,
destruction of water resources etc.
The site has been previewed on the ’behind the scenes’ blog
of Baby Milk Action’s Campaigns and Networking Coordinator,
Mike Brady, since the beginning of August.
Mike Brady said:
I totally reject Nestlé’s pretence that the site breaches
Nestlé copyright and the absurd idea that it was "passing
off" as a company site - its purpose is clearly stated and
people are directed to Nestlé’s own site to read its
claims. The Swiss media is currently full of the case of a
Nestlé secret agent who passed herself off as a campaigner
to infiltrate an advocacy organisation and dupe people into
providing sensitive and confidential information, so I think
we are the ones with reason to worry. I question why
Nestlé wanted to seize the domain name just days before
the official launch of the site. Was it to hit us
financially by requiring publicity for the site to be
re-done? Or, as with the case of its infiltration of the
Swiss ATTAC group, was it planning to mislead people into
supplying sensitive information in the belief they were
communicating with those monitoring Nestlé malpractice? We
don’t know what Nestlé would put on the domain and have
good reason to be suspicious, so we have refused to hand it
over.
While retaining ownership of the domain name demanded by
Nestlé, the site launch is going ahead with the
information on the site unchanged using the domain name:
www.nestlecritics.org
The case of the Nestlé agent, "Sara Meylan", is described
on the Nestlé Critics site. She was employed through the
security firm, SECURITAS, and infiltrated ATTAC Switzerland,
where she joined the editorial board of a book also
examining various aspects of Nestlé’s business activities.
The following is an extract from the Nestlé Critics site:
"As a co-author she had complete access to the group’s
documentation and to all Attac’s email contacts around the
world, including information on union members in Colombia
fighting for workers-rights in Nestle plants. Such
information is potentially dangerous in the wrong hands; in
the past people have been killed just for being active
organizers especially in Colombia.... The mole was
meticulous; the reports on the authors of the book read like
real police files and included their names, ages, e-mail
addresses and photographs, character traits, physical and
ethnic descriptions, ideas and degree of political activism.
This human raw material was collected by Sara for 30 francs
an hour and converted into merchandise by Securitas to be
sold to Nestlé without the knowledge of the authors. The
authors went pale while the mole’s report was being read,
dismayed at the extent to which the details of their private
life were coldly revealed for hard cash."
The current boycott of Nestlé was launched on 4 October
1988 in the United States and has now been launched in a
total of 20 countries. Nestlé is targeted as monitoring
around the world finds it to be responsible for more
violations of the International Code of Marketing of
Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions
of the World Health Assembly than any other company.
According to UNICEF: "Marketing practices that undermine
breastfeeding are potentially hazardous wherever they are
pursued: in the developing world, WHO estimates that some
1.5 million children die each year because they are not
adequately breastfed. These facts are not in dispute."
The boycott has forced some changes in Nestlé policy and
ended specific cases of malpractice, but violations remain
systematic, except in those countries where the campaign’s
parallel strategy of bringing in independently monitored and
enforced legislation implementing the Code and Resolutions
has succeeded.
Publicly Nestlé claims that the boycott has little impact,
but last year Nestlé’s Global Public Affair Manager
admitted that Nestlé is "widely boycotted" (see
http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press6july07.html).
GMIPoll found that Nestlé is one of the four most
boycotted companies on the planet. The business consultancy
ECOFACT recently listed Nestlé as one of the world’s most
controversial companies for being: "consistently and
severely criticized by the world’s media and NGOs".
For further information
Contact Mike Brady on 020 3239 9222 or Patti Rundall on
07786 523493
For concerns about Nestlé business practices see the
Nestlé Critics website www.nestlecritics.org - bookmark
this page for future reference.
Notes for editors
1. In their bid to close the site, Nestlé’s lawyers
attempted to argue it was "passing off" as an official
Nestlé website and attempted to assert copyright over a
boycott image that has been in use for most of the 20 years
of the boycott and the colours used on the website, in all
their shades.
2. Nestlé demanded the domain name initially publicised
for the Nestlé’s Action site (nestlesa.org) be transferred
to it by 29 September, arguing it was an infringement of the
Swiss name of the company, Nestlé S.A. - though Nestlé
does not use any domain name containing nestlesa and at
least one domain name containing this construction is a page
of advertising links (nestlesa.com). Baby Milk Action has
refused to hand over the domain name because of Nestlé’s
past history of duping campaigners into providing sensitive
and confidential information. However, as it was never the
intention to gain traffic by mistake, the domain name
nestlecritics.org is being used for the official launch of
the site. It remains to be seen whether Nestlé will
continue its demand for the original domain name or
challenge the nestlecritics.org name.
3. The World Intellectual Property Organisation has already
ruled in favour of campaigners in similar disputes. For
example in a complaint brought by Bridgestone the WIPO
arbitration panel ruled: “Panel concludes that the
exercise of free speech for criticism and commentary also
demonstrates a right or legitimate interest in the domain
name under Paragraph 4 (c)(iii). The Internet is above all a
framework for global communication, and the right to free
speech should be one of the foundations of Internet law"
and, regarding possible trade mark infringement: "....the
Respondent has legitimate fair use and free speech rights
and interests in respect of the Domain Name, and the
Respondent has not registered and used the Domain Name in
bad faith.”
Best wishes,
Mike Brady
Campaigns and Networking Coordinator
Baby Milk Action
Tel: 01223 464420
Fax: 01223 464417
Baby Milk Action, 34 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QY
http://www.babymilkaction.org/
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