European Privacy Association

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The European Privacy Association (EPA) is a Brussels-based lobby group registered on the EU Transparency Register.
Its business members pay €10,000 annually for membership.

Business Members

In May 2013, ALTER-EU (a watchdog for EU Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation) lodged a complaint with the Transparency Register Secretariat about EPA’s failure to disclose its business members on the Register and for categorising itself under ‘think tank, research and academic institutions’ rather than ‘In-house lobbyists and trade/professional associations’.1
Following the complaint, EPA’s Register entry was revised and is now registered as ‘Trade, business & professional associations’, but its business members are still not disclosed. Instead, the Register entry refers to a “complete list of EPA Supporters” on the EPA website, which in August 2013 included ten companies. There was no mention of a tobacco company.2 It is not clear whether this list includes all members.

EPA founder’s links with Swedish Match

The founding member of the EPA is Karin Riis-Jørgensen, a former Danish Member of European Parliament who is now working as a senior advisor for Brussels-based PR consultancy Kreab Gavin Anderson. Among her clients is Swedish Match.

Tobacco Tactics Resources

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References

  1. Ester Arauzo et al, Rescue the Register! How to make EU lobby transparency credible and reliable, Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), June 2013, accessed August 2013
  2. European Privacy Association, Our Supporters undated, accessed August 2013