Investor Groups Backed by $8T in AUM Press Food & Bev Companies to Halt Litigation Delaying Public Health Laws
Call follows release of report detailing costs of extensive lawfare attacks on duly enacted public health policies.
NEW YORK, NY, Wednesday, September 30, 2026 – The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and ShareAction, two responsible investment organizations coordinating large coalitions of investors, are calling on food and beverage corporations to end their litigious response to public health policies.
Their statement follows the release of “Big Food vs. The People”, a comprehensive study by Lighthouse Reports. That report detailed both the immense public health costs of markets around the world being saturated with unhealthy food and drink options, and an unmistakable pattern of the companies behind those products abusing the court system to attack duly enacted public policies meant to improve public health.
In the statement, the organizations issued three core arguments about this litigious approach to support their argument that companies should stop this practice altogether:
- These lawsuits are overwhelmingly unsuccessful, with more than 80% of them failing despite massive expense.
- They pose a material risk to investors as a result of potential reputational damage, misallocation of capital to sustain the lawsuits, and the externalities caused by poor public health outcomes driven by weak access to nutritious foods.
- It is essential for these corporations to commit to reexamining the processes they undertake that provided the basis for this litigation.
“At a time of broader public awareness of the importance of healthy and nutritious foods and mounting public skepticism about the conduct of major corporations, the sue-first-ask-questions-later strategy of major food and beverage corporations is self-defeating and unsustainable,” said Meg Jones-Monteiro, Senior Director for Health Equity and Evaluation at ICCR.
“Shareholders have every right and reason to expect that corporate leaders are making sound and sustainable decisions on how they allocate resources to set their companies up for long-term success. By any reasonable standard, this strategy of pursuing excessive lawsuits does not serve that objective. It is crucial that companies better align all public policy advocacy activities with their own stated goals regarding health and nutrition, and change course away from these attacks on public health policies,” said Caroline Boden, Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Mercy Investment Services.
“Food and beverage companies using shareholder resources for litigation to delay and derail healthier food policies is a big concern for investors, especially when it contradicts companies’ own health commitments. We urge major food and beverage businesses to engage constructively with investors on this issue. ShareAction and the investors in the LIPH coalition will be watching closely for progress,” said Sheila Kyobutungi, Health Programme Lead at ShareAction.
CONTACT:
Alex Tucciarone
Director of Communications
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
(516) 263-9775
atucciarone@iccr.org
Silje Undlien
Senior Media Officer
ShareAction
+44 20 7183 4184
silje.undlien@shareaction.org
About ShareAction. ShareAction is an independent charity and an expert on responsible investment. We work to build a world where the financial system serves people and planet. We set ambitious standards for how financial institutions, through their investment decisions, can protect our planet and its people, and we campaign for this approach to become the norm. We convene shareholders to push companies to tackle the climate crisis, protect nature and shape healthier societies. ShareAction convenes Long-term Investors for People’s Health (LIPH), a coalition of over 50 investors with $8 trillion in AUM setting a vision for an investment system that values health.
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $6 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 55 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website http://www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn and Bsky.
