Philip Morris International (PMI) defended its right to lobby European Union officials on proposed changes to tobacco regulation, and rebutted recent media criticism of those efforts as misrepresentations.

“Unfortunately, rather than a serious evaluation of the content and likely impact of the EU’s proposed Tobacco Products Directive, the discussion tends to focus on our efforts to make known our views about this proposal,” PMI said in a statement. “The argument that we should remain silent in the face of a proposal that directly concerns us — and on which we have facts and improvement ideas to share – is illogical.”
PMI took issue with reports in two Guardian Media Group publications citing confidential documents showing 161 employees were employed to “combat” the directive. The tobacco company said it surveyed 161 people on their activity and, using EU methodology, listed “a fraction” of that total in an EU lobbyist transparency report. PMI said this was a voluntary effort.
“This number includes those employees in the Brussels office who interact with EU officials and are listed by name. In short, we followed best practices in our reporting, which makes it particularly frustrating to read articles that misinterpret — or, perhaps, intentionally mischaracterize — our practices — especially when the purported basis for this information appears to be stolen, internal PMI working documents. On top of all that, creating confusion about the number of PMI employees who work on matters in Brussels distracts from what matters, namely a rational approach to tobacco regulation in the EU,” PMI said.