July 22, 2026 | Source: Lighthouse Reports | by Thin Lei Win, Emmanuel Freudenthal, Monica Camacho, Sarasvati Nagesh Thuppadolla, Elena DeBre, Tessa Pang, Wael Eskandar, Lu Min Lwin, Viktoriia Maksymova, Charles Boutaud, Margot Gibbs and Beatriz Ramalho da Silva with Alexandria Bordas, Andrea Rincón, Andrew Gregory, Ankit Raj, Armando Talamantes, Ed Wanderley, Edier Buitrago, Gloria Riva, Guilherme Cavalcanti, Irene van den Berg, Jahnavi Sen, Jesse Kathan, João Peres, Kennia Velazquez, Laura Martínez Mejía, Maria Martha Bruno, Nicoletta Dentico, Paulina Macias Ortega, Philip Baker, Rodrigo Oliveira, Scott Slater, Thalita Pires
Bad diets kill millions of people globally every year, and lead to tens of billions of dollars in health costs, often placing the heaviest burden on communities who are least able to afford it. Children, with limited decision-making power, are particularly vulnerable to this.
Legislators and government officials have worked to rein in this public health crisis by enacting laws that require food companies to be transparent about their ingredients and limit the advertising of unhealthy foods.
In public, the world’s biggest and richest food companies such as Coca Cola, PepsiCola, and Mondelez say they want to be part of the solution. But behind closed doors, they have taken governments to court to delay, dilute, and derail public health laws, which the companies say violate their rights.
This cross border collaboration with health academics and an international media coalition shed light on how transnational corporations use legal tactics – lawsuits and legal threats – to stymie public health efforts in six countries where such tactics are most apparent: Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, India, Britain, and the United States.
