'Netherlands: The connection between Netherlands-headquartered companies and U.S. Congress members who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election - Democracy, human rights and rule of law concerns'

According to the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) website, the following eight of the largest Netherlands-headquartered multinationals [Aegon (Transamerica), Ahold Delhaize, Airbus, CNH Industrial, KPMG, Louis Dreyfus, LyondellBasell, Philips] have U.S. subsidiaries whose Political Action Committees (PACs) have donated directly to the campaigns of U.S. Congress members after they voted against certifying the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Those certification votes were held after the courts had ruled the election was fair... Those Congress members have been strongly criticized for attempting to undermine democracy by voting against certification...

In addition to the direct donations... many Netherlands-headquartered companies [CNH Industrial, Corbion, Fagron, KPMG, Louis Dreyfus Company, Rabobank Group, Royal Barenbrug Group] are connected through their U.S. subsidiaries with U.S. trade associations that have donated to U.S. Congress members after they voted against certifying the 2020 election results...

We [Donations and Democracy] communicated with each of the companies and trade associations [mentioned]... in advance of this briefing, inviting them to respond to the publicly-available information about donations to the campaigns of Congress members who had voted against certifying the 2020 election results. As of the date of this briefing, none of the companies or trade associations had responded to us. If any of them respond in the future, we will update this briefing as appropriate...

When companies and trade associations fund the campaigns of candidates after they voted to overturn results of an election which the courts had ruled was fair, this raises concerns about respect for internationally-recognized standards on free and fair elections, democracy, human rights and the rule of law... The United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, in a 2022 report, stated that corporate financial political contributions can have an adverse impact on human rights...

Donations and Democracy had contacted all companies and trade associations mentioned in the briefing prior to its release (see above).