Vaping: The real dollars behind fake consumer organisations
By Tim Luimes (editor until July 2025), Ties Keyzer (editor until June 2022), Stéphane Horel (partner from Le Monde), Eva Schram (contributor until August 2022), | 3 November, 2021
An investigation by “Le Monde” and “The Investigative Desk” (Netherlands) reveals the alliance between the tobacco lobby and the networks of American oil tycoons to prevent regulations on electronic cigarettes.
Under the guise of defending individual freedom, fake consumer organisations are promoting e-cigarettes. They are an illusion to the public and decision-makers, aiming to influence regulation of these new products and to hamper tobacco control. They are secretly funded by the tobacco lobby and the networks of American oil billionaires. The stakes are not just financial. This elusive nebula is working to disseminate a radical right-wing ideology, hostile to government intervention, in the heart of Europe: libertarianism.
Read the full article on NRC (in Dutch), Internazionale (in Italian) Le Monde (in English).
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