According to The Financial Times, astroturfing is "common place" in American politics, but was "revolutionary" in Europe, when it was exposed that the anti-privacy "think-tank" the European Privacy Association was actually sponsored by technology companies.
EU lobbying watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has asserted that EPA "is working to represent industry interests in the debate on data protection in Europe" and "to promote industry-friendly legislation" as a front group for the IT industry.
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In 2013, CEO filed a complaint against EPA because the association had not listed any corporate sponsors in the EU Transparency Register, claiming that it had only ten natural persons as members; EPA then admitted that Microsoft, Google and Yahoo are among its members.
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