In December 2025, SOMO published a long-form investigation exposing how a secretive alliance of U.S.-based polluters has been working to dismantle the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and other sustainability laws. Operating under the name “Competitiveness Roundtable,” the group comprises eleven major multinational enterprises—including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, Honeywell, Baker Hughes, Nyrstar, Dow Inc., Enterprise Mobility, JPMorgan Chase, TotalEnergies and others—many of which are fossil‑fuel giants headquartered in the United States. Leaked documents reveal that the Roundtable has been meeting weekly since at least March 2025 to secure the CSDDD’s repeal or dilution. Key tactics included dividing EU governments, marginalising European Commission departments that support the directive, pushing a right‑wing majority in the European Parliament, and mobilising the Trump administration and non‑EU governments to treat the CSDDD as a trade barrier【455600570077555†L30-L39】.

The group’s strategy involved designing and funding research to cast doubt on the economic impact of the CSDDD and paying the TEHA Group €185,000 to write a report and host a September 2025 event promoting their positions. Documents describe how the Roundtable assigned specific companies to lobby individual EU member states—such as TotalEnergies focusing on France, Belgium and Denmark, and ExxonMobil targeting Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania【455600570077555†L150-L178】. A divide‑and‑conquer strategy succeeded when German Chancellor Merz and French President Macron intervened in June 2025 to dilute the Council’s negotiating mandate, delaying and weakening climate obligations, scrapping civil‑liability provisions and limiting supply‑chain scope to top‑tier suppliers【455600570077555†L150-L156】. The group also plotted to circumvent “stubborn” European Commission departments by pressuring Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and key commissioners【455600570077555†L185-L200】.

In the European Parliament, the Roundtable pushed the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) to align with far‑right parties, ensuring adoption of an Omnibus I negotiation mandate in November 2025 that reflects their demands on climate, civil liability and supply‑chain scope【455600570077555†L206-L224】. At the same time, the alliance sought to have the Trump administration “ramp up the pressure” on the EU, treating the directive as a barrier to a US‑EU trade deal. It supported the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s white paper urging that non‑EU companies and activities be excluded from the CSDDD, and considered leveraging the EU automotive industry’s concern about U.S. tariffs to secure concessions【455600570077555†L228-L257】. The Roundtable planned to mobilise third‑country governments to lobby EU leaders with coordinated letters and public interventions, ensuring that pressure on the EU would appear to come from outside the United States【455600570077555†L258-L280】.

SOMO’s investigation concludes that the Roundtable’s activities, while not illegal, represent an opaque and undemocratic attempt by a corporate cabal to rewrite Europe’s flagship human‑rights and climate law in their own interest. The group funded think‑tank reports and considered targeted digital campaigns—including dark posts on LinkedIn—to shape public perception【455600570077555†L298-L334】. By late 2025 many of its priorities had been adopted in the EU’s Omnibus I proposal and the August 2025 US‑EU trade agreement, with a final decision expected before the end of 2025. Researchers argue that Europe’s democracy is fragile when lawmakers yield to such corporate pressure and urge EU institutions to exclude polluting multinationals from lawmaking, defend human rights and climate commitments and restore the CSDDD’s original ambition【455600570077555†L335-L367】.