Challenging corporate power

Our new challenging corporate power series will explore options, generate discussion and consider how consumers can use their influence to help bring about change.

It is now 36 years since we set off on our mission to "help consumers shop ethically and to challenge corporate power".

And the success of the vision to normalise the discussion of ethics in consumer products everywhere has surpassed all our expectations.

Challenging corporate power

However, if you view the new US president as largely a mouthpiece for giant oil and tech multinationals, the idea that, in early 2025, corporate power is being successfully challenged by us or indeed anyone else right now seems laughable.

To make matters worse, this latest wave of anti-ethical political behaviour is occurring at a time when people and the planet are crying out for fundamental change of a different nature.

In addition, as we have learnt through our Climate Gap work and at our sold-out de-growth conference in London in 2024, there is growing support for moving away from the capitalism promoted by corporations, with its requirement for perpetual economic growth, that is causing rather than fixing many of the core problems we face.

When we were founded we identified corporate power and the pursuit of profit as lying at the heart of many of these problems. We noted that many corporations had grown to become more powerful than the governments that were meant to be regulating them. We also noted that our democracies were failing because they had been "captured" by corporations pursuing their own economic self-interest.

In the same breath, we were always careful to point out that "consumer action is not a replacement for other forms of political action but is an important additional way for people to exert influence."

However, the political situation right now feels alarming and in rapid flux.

Researching and talking about corporations is our specialist subject, so we are returning to our roots to look at other ways of challenging corporate power. 

Ditching for-profit companies

Our challenging corporate power series will contain news items, features, and interviews to help us think outside the box and imagine a different economy. 

We will explore the possibility of reinventing the corporation, and the idea that the for-profit corporation, like oil and coal, needs to be consigned to history as no longer useful for the times we are in.

When we were founded in 1989, we put the word 'ethical' next to the word 'consumer' to be provocative and to make people think. Discussing the ethics of companies and brands is now pretty mainstream.

Perhaps soon, we will find that discussing the end of the for-profit corporation has somehow become part of mainstream discourse too? 

News of challenges to corporate power

It is heartening to see challenges to corporate power taking place across the UK and the world. These may be grassroots and community resistance or structured campaigns with wide geographical support.

We report on some recent examples.

Auletta Casa Mia is one of 58 projects on the shortlist for the 2025 Lush Spring Prize, a more than £200,000 prize fund that seeks to build capacity for those regenerating the earth’s damaged systems. The award recipients will be announced in May 2025. 

Lush Spring Prize is a joint venture between Lush Cosmetics and Ethical Consumer.

Digital disobedience and challenging tech monopolies

The campaigning journalist specialising in investigating tech monopolies, Carole Cadwalladr released a Ted Talk on YouTube called "This is what a digital coup looks like". During the talk she encourages digital disobedience and states “You have more power than you think”. 

In her final piece for the Observer, she ended on a positive reflection that "These vast data-harvesting tech monopolies that control our online world were never inevitable. And there is another way. We can go back to the future, to the democratic, inspiring, non-corporatised web that [Jimmy] Wales [founder of Wikipedia] proved was possible."

ClientEarth opposes weakening of EU sustainability rules

In response to corporate pressure over 'complexity' in recent new sustainability laws, the European Commission introduced the Omnibus Simplification Package in February 2025. The proposal allegedly aimed to "streamline corporate sustainability reporting while maintaining the EU’s sustainability goals."

Leaks revealed that these new rules had been hastily reviewed without public consultation, with input only invited from a select group which included energy giants, banks, and other industry lobbyists.

In April, a coalition of eight NGOs, led by ClientEarth, lodged a formal complaint with the European Ombudsman, condemning the undemocratic, un-transparent and rushed way in which the European Commission has developed the Omnibus proposal.

In their statement, they said: “The Omnibus proposal was made without any public consultation, sidelining civil society, with a lack of evidence or environmental and social impact assessments, and with a primary focus on narrow industry interests. This reckless move not only weakens sustainability rules but also damages public trust in the EU’s democratic foundations.”

The complaint argued that the Commission had failed to assess whether its proposal aligns with the EU’s climate neutrality target – in breach of its obligations under the European Climate Law. The NGOs also warned that the Omnibus could undermine EU economic stability and the competitiveness objectives it is supposed to help.

The eight NGOs were: ClientEarth, Anti-Slavery International, Clean Clothes Campaign, European Coalition for Corporate Justice, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Witness, Notre Affaire À Tous and T&E.

For more information visit the ClientEarth website.

What do you think about corporate power?

Our challenging corporate power series is designed to generate discussion.

We welcome any reflections and ideas you may want to share. Contact us via our contact form (select 'general enquiries'), or email us on letters [at] ethicalconsumer.org.