About

Observatoire des multinationales (Multinationals Observatory) is an online investigative media and watchdog on corporations and corporate power, focussing mostly but not exclusively on French large companies.

Observatoire des multinationales is a media recognised as providing «Informations générales et politiques». It was founded in 2013 by Ivan du Roy and Olivier Petitjean.

Between 2013 and 2022, the publisher was association Alter-médias, which is also the publisher of (basta.media). Since mid-2022, this website is published by a new association, also named Observatoire des multinationales. The director of publication is Olivier Petitjean.

Board of Observatoire des multinationales (1st September 2022): association Alter-médias, Jelena Aparac, Marielle Benchehboune, Michel Capron, Régis Essono, Jean-Philippe Foegle, Marie-Laure Guislain, Lamia Oualalou, Mathieu Paris, Olivier Petitjean, Martin Pigeon, Jeanne Planche, Dominique Plihon, Laura Rousseau, Alexis de la Tour du Pin.

Our main authors and contributors, past and present: Olivier Petitjean, Lora Verheecke, Maxime Combes, Rachel Knaebel, Barnabé Binctin, Ivan du Roy, Sophie Chapelle, Mélissandre Pichon, Mathieu Paris, Margot Vermeylen, Simon Gouin, Nolwenn Weiler, Agnès Rousseaux, Rozenn Le Saint, Jocelyn Timperley, Anne-Sophie Simpere, Warda Mohamed.

Contact us to share information, suggestions or contributions :
Association Observatoire des multinationales
2 impasse Delaunay - 75011 Paris
observatoire [at] multinationales.org

For an overview of the media coverage of our work, check this page (in French).

Our mission

“Observatoire des multinatonales aims to develop and promote independent information on large corporations and on economic powers in general, as well as on the relations between economic powers and political powers, in order to enhance democratic debate on those issues.”

“As such, the association is the publisher of an online media, Observatoire des multinationales (www.multinationales.org) and aims in particular, but not exclusively, to:
 Defend freedom of expression and the right to information on economic powers, including by denouncing attacks on the independence of the press, censorship, media concentration and any infringement of freedom of expression and information by economic actors;
 Advocate for the regulation of lobbying and fight against the excessive influence of large economic actors on public and political decisions in a broad sense;
 Advocate for transparent and healthier relationships between the State and corporations, subject to democratic debate, particularly with regard to the granting of public support, taxation and privatisation;
 Fight against economic concentration and oligopolies;
 Contribute to an effective political and citizen response to the climate and ecological crisis, including denouncing "greenwashing";
 Promote the remunicipalisation of public services and local alternatives to multinational corporations;
 Promote rights and freedoms within companies: union rights, internal democracy);
 Promote the respect of human rights and, when applicable, international humanitarian law by multinational corporations and other economic actors throughout their value chain and within any grouping regardless of the nationality of their subsidiaries. To act and fight against human rights violations, and when applicable, violation sof international humanitarian law, especially when these violations may constitute crimes under international law such as crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide.”

(extract from article 2 of the statutes of association Observatoire des multinationales)

Our vision

Observatoire des multinationales operates under an overall vision that can be summed up by the notion of “economic democracy”. Economic democracy includes:

  1. The democratic integrity of public decisions on economic matters, through a genuine open and informed public debate, protected from capture by private or public-private interests, taking into account ecological limits and individual and collective fundamental rights.
  2. Democracy within companies and their sphere of influence (labour rights, workers voices, etc.)
  3. The protection and promotion of a plurality of forms of economic activity: cooperatives, social and solidarity economy, public sector, commons, but also diverse types and sizes of firms protected from subordination to ever larger transnational corporations.

Our funding

For figures prior to 2022, when Observatoire des multinationales was published by the association Alter-médias, see here.

Since the beginning, our Observatory has benefited from the continued financial support of various private foundations, primarily the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation and the Un monde par tous Foundation. In addition, we receive financial resources through our participation in the ENCO network (see Partners and funding from other private foundations for specific operations or publications - for example, the Open Society Foundation for the “Pharma Papers” and for our work on the French Presidency of the EU Council.

This income is supplemented by individual donations from our readers and some sales.

The financial support of our readers is critical to guarantee our viability and our independence. We therefore encourage you to donate, either as a one-off support or by providing a permanent support of 100€ per year or 10€ per month.

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