The Grocery Manufacturers Association says it will “vigorously pursue its options to correct” the record-setting $18-million fine levied on it by a Washington State judge for violating campaign finance laws in the 2013 state referendum on labeling GMO foods. Attorney General Bob Ferguson said it was the largest campaign-finance penalty ever imposed in the nation.
Voters narrowly rejected the GMO labeling initiative, I-522, by 51 percent to 49 percent. It was the second in a series of three ever-closer votes by West Coast states on GMO labeling, along with Vermont’s enactment of a label law that prompted a congressional showdown. U.S. lawmakers passed a law that mandates nationwide disclosure of GMO ingredients, but allows a variety of ways for foodmakers to meet the requirement.
Washington State officials accused GMA of concealing the names of corporations that put $11 million into the $22 million campaign to defeat the labeling proposal. It was the largest sum ever spent to defeat a voter initiative, said the Seattle Times.
“GMA intentionally violated the laws of Washington by its actions,” ruled Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch. “As a result, the court is imposing a penalty, costs and fees as set forth … and trebling them based on GMA’s intentional violation of the law.”
Ferguson told the Seattle Times that the ruling “is one of my happiest days as attorney general. GMA’s conduct was so egregious. They are sophisticated people, and they set about to conceal these donations from the people of Washington State.”
In a statement, GMA accused Ferguson of commandeering the case to boost his political profile and said its decision to list itself as the donor rather than the food companies “was at most an inadvertent technical violation” of a “vague and complex” state law. “GMA intends to vigorously pursue its legal options to correct this injustice.”
To read the 27-page ruling, click here. KUOW-FM included the ruling at the bottom of its story on the decision.